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Courtney is a 35-year-old educational assistant and new mom from Markham, Ontario. 
Right from the very beginning, birth was a wild journey for me: My husband and I had tried for a couple of years but nothing was happening. Since I suffer from two autoimmune conditions?Crohn?s disease and Ankylosing Spondylitis?I was concerned my medication was playing a role in my infertility. I also had a polyp removed, in case that was causing the problem, and then finally we did an egg retrieval.
We did one round of IVF and got pregnant on our first chance. After spending every month for years and years waiting for the test to be positive, and even though the line was faint, we were ecstatic! But I knew too that because of my Crohn?s this could be difficult. They referred me to Mount Sinai Hospital at Sinai Health to see Dr. Cindy Maxwell, because she?s an expert in pregnancies affected gastrointestinal conditions. I transferred my medical care there and she became my OB.
During an ultrasound at 18 weeks, I remember laying on the bed thinking, Okay, this is the big one where they do the measurements and let us know everything?s growing properly. Within 30 seconds, the technician said, ?I see VP here.? I?d never heard of it, so I sat in the waiting room Googling on my phone. I remember thinking, Ohmigod, this is actually scary. 
Dr. Maxwell confirmed the vasa previa, a super rare condition where fetal blood vessels are too close to the cervix. It felt really unfair,...