Miracle baby for Brisbane PR queen Fleur Madden

After years of heartbreak, PR queen Fleur Madden has realised her dream of motherhood with baby Josiah.

Brisbane PR queen Fleur Madden with miracle baby Josiah. Photo AAP/ Ric Frearson

SEEING her cuddle little Josiah, it’s hard to imagine that Fleur Madden almost didn’t get the chance to be a mother.

The cherubic five-month-old, happily blowing bubbles while perched on his mum’s hip, is testament to Fleur’s incredible strength and determination to have a child in the face of terrible odds.

Suffering miscarriage after miscarriage took its toll on the 38-year-old PR queen, but rather than sit back and wait to lose another baby, she took matters into her own hands.

Fleur, who is CEO of Brisbane’s award-winning Red Republic PR company with clients including Myer, Lorna Jane, Sass & Bide and Westfield, fell pregnant for the first time with her second husband, Zimbabwe-born accountant Jimmy Gwisai, 41, in August 2015.

Sadly, she lost the baby before the 12-week mark.

Fleur Madden with husband Jimmy Gwisai and their baby Josiah. Picture: First Echo Photography

Initially putting their faith in doctors, the pair tried again and again — sometimes using IVF and conceiving naturally at other times. Each time it wasn’t to be, though, and sadly Fleur and Jimmy suffered through a further three miscarriages.

“We were averaging two pregnancies a year,” Fleur explains.

“Sometimes I don’t know how I did it and I can’t say I was positive the whole time, but you work with the hand you’re dealt. I never allowed my mind to go to a place where it wasn’t going to happen.

“I guess our issue has never been conceiving a baby — it was maintaining a pregnancy. Our babies were tested and they were never able to find anything wrong with them, so at that point we had to look at ourselves.”

Looking back on her journey, Fleur says she wants to encourage other women struggling to have a baby not to give up.

Having also tried unsuccessfully for a child in her first marriage 10 years ago, she came close to adopting a little boy from South Korea. but even that slipped through her fingers when she split from her husband and was told at that time single women couldn’t adopt.

Miracle baby, Josiah.

“My message is that, really, you have to keep getting back in the ring and fighting when it’s fertility. You really do have to take matters into your own hands in terms of making sure you’ve done everything you can do.”

After her fourth miscarriage, Fleur started researching what could be wrong, which led her to discover various blood-clotting conditions that can cause miscarriage.

“When I told the doctor I wanted tests done for blood-clotting problems, I was literally told you won’t have it — you’d be one in a million. And I said to him, I’m always the one in a million so I want the testing done.”

Although her test came back negative, Fleur decided to have further grades of testing done in the UK at London’s Zita West Clinic, which specialises in fertility and specifically thrombophilia (blood-clotting conditions).

When Jimmy’s work took him to the UK, she went with him and visited the specialist centre, where more involved tests were carried out.

Doctors then confirmed what Fleur had suspected and put her on a treatment plan to undertake if she fell pregnant again.

At that point, the couple, who live at Bulimba in Brisbane’s southeast, had decided to take a break and focus on their upcoming wedding in November 2017.

The wedding of Fleur Madden and Jimmy Gwisai. Picture: Tennille Fink Photography

The couple, together since 2013 after being set up on a blind date by mutual friends, tied the knot at Fleur’s brother’s property at Gumdale in Brisbane’s east.

But in an unexpected twist, Fleur discovered she was pregnant before walking down the aisle. “My dress was designed by London designer Jenny Packham, and I was told it was not the dress to wear if I intended to be pregnant. I said the chances of that were very slim,” Fleur laughs.

“The day Jimmy picked my dress up, we found out I was pregnant with Josiah. By some blessing they accidentally gave him a dress a size too big. Someone was smiling down on me.

“We had a beautiful marquee wedding. It was an intimate wedding with only 80 people, many of whom flew in from around the world. Having Josiah in attendance on the day made it even more joyful and special. I honestly felt all my dreams were coming true that day.”

Baby on board. Picture: Tennille Fink Photograph

Wedding plans aside, Fleur remained terrified that she would miscarry again, but was fortunate enough to find a doctor to treat her in Brisbane.

She was put on a course of treatment to maintain the pregnancy — steroids and injections to thin the blood.

Fleur also endured extreme morning sickness (hyperemesis gravidarum) and gestational diabetes.

It was an anxious time.

“Until he was born I was nervous and on edge constantly,” she says.

“I was constantly ill, worried I was going to lose my baby. For us, pregnancy was about survival on every level — for me, for the baby.”

Finally, on May 3, 2018, baby Josiah arrived via caesarean section at Brisbane’s Mater Mothers’ Private Hospital.

“There were tears. When (Josiah) first came out, Jimmy said, ‘He looks just like you’, and then I saw him and said, ‘He does not; he looks just like you’. African genes are strong, I think.”

Jimmy and Josiah. Picture: First Echo Photography

Fleur, who started her career as a journalist at The Sunday Mail before venturing into public relations, says being a career woman influenced her decision to push for testing.

“I’m very used to making stuff happen professionally and the thing with fertility is it’s so out of your control. It was a tough pregnancy, a tough conception, but if I hadn’t taken it upon myself to make sure that we had all the testing we needed to have done and really pushed all of the doctors that we saw, we wouldn’t have ended up with a baby.”

She credits her husband for giving her the strength to carry on.

“Jimmy was amazing. He’s a very solid and calm person. When you’re faced with such enormous challenges, it’s either going to bring you closer together or further apart, and we really proved how strong we were.”

As a CEO, Fleur is never completely on maternity leave, and Josiah was lucky enough to attend his first management meeting at just four weeks old.

“I’m excited about the next chapter as a mum and a businesswoman; however, I know the struggle is real.

“Since I’ve become a mum, I am certainly more selective with where I focus my energies work wise and what projects I take on.”

Josiah’s room. Pictures: AAP/Ric Frearson

The couple aren’t sure if they will have more children, but for Fleur pregnancy is no longer something she can’t do.

“I think I could do it again because Josiah is such a delight and it was all worth it. But in saying that, I am 38, so if this is it and Josiah is what we have, we are immeasurably blessed.

“We feel so much gratitude and so blessed, and nothing is too much trouble.

“We both get up in the middle of the night, we both race to him for everything because we know we may never have had him.”