Avery Marie Against AFLP

Avery Marie Against AFLP was started by Laura & Ryan Dixon to honor their precious daughter, Avery, striving to prevent others from experiencing the nightmare of Pregnancy & Infant Loss and help soothe the aching hearts and souls of those who have been affected. 

Ryan & Laura Dixon were married in June 2012 and decided to start a family in August 2013. To our surprise we found out we were expecting on September 6, 2013. We were elated! According to the doctors we were experiencing a completely "normal, healthy and boring" pregnancy and were told delivery would be the same. However, Laura experienced swelling relatively early, around 19 weeks gestation.

Doctors told her to stay off her feet or prop them up as much as possible, drink plenty of water and try to stay away from salty foods, none of which helped. As our pregnancy continued, the swelling got worse and painful. Laura's blood pressure was also on the rise, but because it was below 140/90 the doctors were not concerned. Laura's pain and swelling continued to the point that on April 28 (almost 38 weeks) she requested a doctors appointment and was to the OB for help. He told her to "grin and bear it."

Laura was also experiencing extreme thirst, but was not concerned because pregnant women are supposed to dink a lot of water, she noticed what she thought was Avery's rear end poking out below her right rib from time to time (doctors thought this could also be Braxton Hicks contractions), and Laura was concerned because Avery's movements had slowed down. "Completely normal," the OB said, "she's running out of room." The OB sent Laura to the hospital for ultrasounds on her legs to make sure there were no blood clots, which there weren't. Fortunately, at this appointment, Laura was told to keep her pre-scheduled appointment that was two days away, April 30, 2014. The day that changed our lives forever.

At this 38 week appointment, Laura's blood pressure spiked to 155. The same OB that told her to, "grin & bear it" two days before was now concerned and told her to go to Labor & Delivery to get checked out and see how they wanted to proceed. Upon admission to the hospital, the nurses were unable to find Avery's heartbeat and whisked Laura away for an emergency C-Section without even saying good bye to Ryan.

To make a very long & painful story short, the doctors had to spend 8 minutes trying to revive our sweet daughter when she entered this world at 5:52 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30, 2014.

Unfortunately, when they did it was too late. Avery was brain dead and passed away 6 hours and 38 minutes later at 12:30 a.m., on Thursday, May 1, 2014. It took 72 hours for Laura to be diagnosed with Acute Fatty Liver of Pregnancy by Maternal Fetal Medicine at which time we also found that all of Laura's organs (except her brain & heart) were failing and was just 6 hours from death herself.