Woman Gives Birth to Healthy Son After 20 Miscarriages
Ranim Haddad, 36, from the US state of Illinois, gave birth to a healthy son named Emmanuel on October 1, 2025, after suffering at least 20 miscarriages and losing two children over a ten-year period. The couple from the Chicago area married in 2014. As she told the magazine People, when she felt her healthy baby boy after birth, she was so happy that it felt like a dream,
adding that faith repeatedly gave them both the strength not to give up. Now that Emmanuel has reached one year of age, Ranim wants to give hope to other women, stating, I just want to say to every woman out there: Never give up.
For the woman, a dream came true after years of painful experiences, as before she could take her son in her arms, she suffered exclusively miscarriages.
Ten Years of Pregnancy Losses and Medical Uncertainty
The journey began in 2015 when Ranim Haddad became pregnant for the first time with her husband, Fuad Haddad, according to sources. That initial pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, kicking off a decade of continuous grief and unsuccessful medical investigations. Only a few months after marrying in 2014, Ranim suffered her first miscarriage, and full of joy she and her husband had expected the baby. During all that time she frequently felt alone and isolated. If they had told me, ‘Okay, that’s why you can’t keep the babies,’ I could have accepted it,
Haddad told the magazine People. I just couldn’t give up as long as there was a chance.
After four years of unsuccessful attempts, medical professionals initially recommended artificial insemination, but those procedures also resulted in miscarriages, leading Ranim to tell her husband at that point that she was done and needed a long break because she could no longer do it. Following that setback, Haddad took a temporary break from treatments. Two years later, she became pregnant naturally, reaching the 18th week—a milestone where hope was huge and it was the first time she and her husband could see the fetus on ultrasound and hear its heartbeat. However, her water broke a day after her baby shower, triggering premature labor in the emergency room where doctors told her she had to plan the funeral, and she delivered a daughter weighing less than 500 grams who did not survive and was meant to be named Miracle, meaning wonder in German. The couple planned a funeral for the child.
Specialized Care at Northwestern Medicine
During a subsequent pregnancy with a boy, doctors diagnosed a rare condition in the 14th week where the fetus failed to develop lungs, and the couple was offered the option to terminate the pregnancy, though Ranim remembered thinking she could not end the baby’s life. The baby, named Samuel, was born and died in his mother’s arms after a few hours, and was buried beside his sister, with Ranim noting that she completely lost her composure at the cemetery. Despite comprehensive testing, physicians could not identify an underlying pathology for the string of losses, and no doctor can explain why she experienced so many miscarriages before Emmanuel was born in 2025. Dr. Susan Gerber, a physician at Northwestern Medicine, noted that Haddad’s case involved more pregnancy losses than she had ever witnessed in a patient who subsequently delivered a healthy infant.
The Healthy Birth of Emmanuel in October 2025
A turning point arrived in February 2025 when Haddad conceived again under the intensive supervision of specialists at Northwestern Medicine. Weekly monitoring revealed no major complications this time, with Ranim going to the doctor every week with baby Emmanuel in her belly, and she was glad she never gave up. On October 1, 2025, Emmanuel was delivered healthy at week 37. It was the best feeling in the world,
Haddad told People. Now that Emmanuel has reached one year of age, Haddad shares her story publicly to support others facing recurrent pregnancy loss, emphasizing that she felt isolated during her decade-long struggle but ultimately persevered.
