'Miracle' baby born healthy after mother's chemotherapy

In short:

A Sunshine Coast mother was diagnosed with advanced blood cancer at 14 weeks pregnant and started intensive chemotherapy while 15 weeks pregnant.

She gave birth to a healthy baby boy in mid-July and then went into remission three weeks later.

What's next?

While the specialised treatment is still relatively rare, doctors say more pregnant women are undergoing chemotherapy as cancer rates continue to rise across the country.

Already 14 weeks pregnant, Jya Banks never imagined she would be able to keep her unborn baby when she was diagnosed with advanced blood cancer.

Scans found growths in the Sunshine Coast mother's neck, her under-arms, chest and abdomen.

It was advanced Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The growth in her abdomen was 10 centimetres in diameter.

"We didn't know what it meant for the baby," Jya Banks said.

"'I'm going to die in five years … that's what I thought."

But the 28-year-old started intensive chemotherapy in February at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital (SCUH) while 15 weeks pregnant.

Specialised treatment plan

SCUH haematology clinical nurse consultant Alana Phillips reassured her and her wife, Betha Banks, that cancer could be treated while also protecting unborn babies.

Ms Phillips said, in her 18 years of work, she had had four patients who were pregnant when diagnosed with cancer.

"A lot of people would think that's an immediate no," she said.

"Jya and Betha presented to our service thinking that wasn't going to be an option for them."

After meeting with her treating team, it was full steam ahead for the Banks family.

"You had the baby doctors being like, 'This is what we're going to do,' and then the cancer doctors being like, 'We'll have meetings about you,'" Betha Banks said.

If the sleepless nights, morning sickness, and usual pregnancy stress were not enough, the mother-to-be also suffered drug fever from the chemotherapy as well as fatigue, nausea, low iron and anaemia.

"Cancer treatment is very specialised, and we have a multidisciplinary team that meets to present each patient's case to make sure it's optimal treatment and evidence-based," Ms Phillips said.

For Jya Banks, this included obstetric medicine, maternity, neonatal medicine, and the cancer care team.

"The majority of fetal development occurs in that first 12 weeks, so hence we wait till that time period," Ms Phillips said.

SCUH senior staff specialist in general and obstetric medicine Rebekah Shakhovskoy said the couple were "fiercely determined" to beat the cancer.

"Her body, which was trying to develop a new human being, was under a lot of stress by the bulk of the cancerous cells," Dr Shakhovskoy said.

It meant a higher risk of clots in the legs or the lungs, a higher risk of infections, and a higher risk of developing diabetes.

"Jya had to have a lot of extra pregnancy care to monitor and treat some of those complications as they did arise," Dr Shakhovskoy said.

'Miracle' baby born healthy

Jya Banks was induced at 37 weeks pregnant, and Harvey Banks was born on July 20.

He had no health issues and weighed in at just over 2 kilograms.

He only stayed one night in hospital.

"They said medically he should be fine, but there's always that level of doubt in your mind of, 'Has it transferred to him? Does he potentially have cancer?'" Betha Banks said.

"But there was no stone left unturned with what the hospital did."

Three weeks post-birth, the family celebrated another milestone: the cancer was in remission.

"A miracle for him to be here," Betha Banks said.

"It could have been a lot worse … we could not have him, and I could also not be here," Jya Banks said.

"We couldn't be happier."

Pregnancy-associated cancer on the rise

Despite ongoing progress in medical treatment, a happy outcome is not guaranteed.

"Unfortunately, I've been involved in cases where the mum and sometimes the baby haven't made it," Dr Shakhovskoy said, adding that because the symptoms of pregnancy and cancer often overlapped, cancer was often found too late.

But she said Australian hospitals were "getting better with diagnostic practices," with imaging techniques now using less radiation for pregnant women.

"We are getting more confident with the type of best chemotherapeutics we can use in pregnancy," Dr Shakhovskoy said.

"Ideally, we do like to start them in the second trimester … but it really depends at what stage in the cancer the patient presents and at what stage in the pregnancy they present at."

As cancer rates continue to rise in Australia, Dr Shakhovskoy said more women were undergoing chemotherapy while pregnant.

"The worldwide incidence of pregnancy-associated cancer, which is diagnosed as a diagnosis of cancer either in pregnancy or in the 12 months postpartum, is actually about one in 1,000," she said.

But despite the "sleepless nights" and long meetings debating Jya Banks's treatment plan, the medical team was pleased with the outcome and "got things right in terms of the timing".

"Seeing Harvey being held in her arms is amazing," Dr Shakhovskoy said.