Like most new moms, Linda Sanchez couldn't take her eyes off her newborn
daughter Tuesday — spotting the shared features, smiling as the baby sucked on a
finger and marveling at her unfussy disposition.
But the biggest marvel Monday night was that Isabella Marie Sanchez came into
the world at all — the latest baby born to a breast cancer patient who was
treated with chemotherapy while pregnant. It took a pioneering Houston program
to make the birth possible.
"It's so surreal. I can't believe she's mine," said Sanchez, who lived in
Houston when she began treatment but later moved to Laredo. "Everything until
now was well worth the outcome."
Doctors pronounced Isabella — 5 pounds, 2 ounces and 18 inches long — perfectly
healthy after her birth at 7:24 p.m. Monday, nearly a month before the original
due date. The delivery at Memorial Hermann Hospital was moved up to accommodate
Sanchez's cancer treatment.
Isabella became the 70th baby born under a University of Texas M.D. Anderson
Cancer Center program that once was controversial, but which last year formed
the basis of the first national guidelines for the treatment of pregnant women
with breast cancer. Until this program, women with cancer who learned they were
pregnant were told to abort.
That's what Sanchez, 27, was told last spring after she learned in a span of a
few days that she was pregnant and that she had breast cancer. She ultimately
found her way to the M.D. Anderson program, and then told her story to the
Houston Chronicle for an article about the program in September.
"I'm so happy for her," Dr. Jennifer Litton, Sanchez's oncologist, said Tuesday
after visiting the new mother and baby. "Linda was good and Isabella looked
happy and healthy. I was tempted to pick her up, but my philosophy is to never
pick up a sleeping baby."
Isabella's frequent naps contrasted sharply with her wide-awake state Monday
night, when she looked all around her new surroundings, happily taking it all in
with a smile, her mother said.
She was delivered with a full head of hair, a trademark of babies born in the
program and a sign that the chemotherapy doesn't have the toxic effect on them
that leaves their mothers bald.
Sanchez will resume chemotherapy next week, then have surgery at its conclusion.
She had six rounds of one therapy, then was off treatment for 7 1/2 weeks before
Monday's delivery. Ultrasounds showed the cancer, which has shrunk to about
one-third its original size, didn't increase during that time.
Doctors started inducing labor Sunday night. On Monday night, Sanchez needed
only about 15 minutes of pushing to give birth.
"It was a picture-perfect delivery," said Dr. Mildred Ramirez, an obstetrician
at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston who partners with M.D.
Anderson on the cases.
"It was quick, we were in complete control and there was never any concern that
Isabella was in any distress. She has a completely clean bill of health."
Ramirez said being there for Isabella's delivery was "the icing on the cake,"
given that Sanchez now lives in Laredo. She said she bonds with all of her
patients, but that the cases in which they are fighting a disease are
"particularly emotional."
Mother and child are scheduled to be released from the hospital today.
"I'm tired, but relieved," said Sanchez, a U.S. immigration and customs officer.
"Isabella isn't going to be a princess, but I expect she will be a girly-girl.
Certainly, she has the pink clothes for that already."
