The disease leads to small blood clots and causes platelet counts to drop.
Flare-ups leave Barattini tired and hospitalizedsometimes for up to 10 days.
But Barattini’simmunotherapytreatment usually keeps her condition under control.
Janelle Brooke Photography
Unfortunately, it also prevents her from carrying apregnancyto term, shetoldRedbookin an interview.
More than a decade has passed since Barattini was initially diagnosed with TTP.
She chose to foregopregnancyaltogether, and she and Kevin began exploring other optionsadoptionand surrogacy topped her list.
Janelle Brooke Photography
Barattini found adoption too expensive, so she decided tofreeze her eggs.
She’d previously learned her embryos were fine and that her disorder wasn’t hereditary.
Now, she needed to find a gestationalsurrogate.
Courtesy of Kevin Barattini
In New York, where Barattini currently lives, paying for surrogacy is banned.
Fives already had several children, and was happy to help Barattini grow her family.
After a fewunsuccessful tries, Fives became pregnant with Barattini’s embryos.
Janelle Brooke Photography
And the two women attended all the ob/gyn appointments together, along with their husbands.
“And there was less stress for me knowing that a really good person was carrying them.
“Them?you might ask.
Janelle Brooke Photography
You heard her right.
“It’s never the end of the road,” Barattini said of expanding their family.
Congratulations to the Barattini and Fives families on Dominic and Luciana!
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