Special procedure at Banner helps reduce chance of miscarriage for future mothers

For some moms, Mother's Day is an extra meaningful celebration. They're not only celebrating motherhood, but the path they took to get there.

It's all thanks to a special procedure for mothers who struggle with miscarriages.

Many parents call their new bundle of joys "Rainbow Babies." They are the sunshine after many storms.

Fox 10's Stefania Okolie went to an event involving mothers who had experienced miscarriages. Many of them said they had five or more.

But many of these mothers were able to find the light at the end of the tunnel through a revolutionary procedure called transabdominal cerclage. 

"So we do this procedure in what we call, a minimally invasive manner, where we make very small little tin openings in the abdomen to allow for the instruments to be placed in there and will allow for the procedure to be performed without a major incident to the patient," said Dr. Jamal Mourad.

Dr. Mourad is the Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery at Banner University Medical Center.

He's changed the lives of many women who would have otherwise feared procedures or surgeries that would help prevent miscarriages and strengthening the cervix without cutting too deep.

"I have an incompetent cervix so I would lose the babies, so it enabled me to carry for 33 weeks," said Charissa Jackson, a patient of Mourad's.

"It allowed for us to finally bring our live baby home," said another mother.

"We do a lot of things in medicine and this is probably the single most gratifying thing for me," said Dr. Mourad.