Viral Photo Shows Newborn Baby Surrounded By The 1616 Injection Needles It Took To Make It
A tiny newborn swaddled in rainbow cloth, surrounded by more than 1,600 shots, the image alone is enough to pull at your heartstrings but when you hear the story behind it, it’s no wonder this photo is going viral.
Patricia and Kimberly O’Neill met close to six years ago working at a daycare, and after a year into the relationship in February 2014, they began trying to conceive. Both women had kids from previous relationships, Patricia a now 7-year-old daughter and Kimberly a now 14-year-old son. Together they decided Patricia, who had always wanted a biological child, would be the one to carry their new loved one. But things don’t always go according to plan.
“We just thought it would only take going into a fertility clinic and nine months later, we’d have a baby,” Patricia told CNN, “It just didn’t happen like that for us.” The couple lost their first baby at six weeks and then the second baby at eight weeks, and it was after this they discovered Patricia suffered from a blood-clotting condition called Factor V Leiden. The illness can cause serious complications with pregnancies, which they O’Neill’s found out the hard way. The fourth embryo took and they began to feel hopeful, but at 11 weeks the baby’s heart stopped.
“I was done and I couldn’t do it anymore. But my wife and I, we started this journey together, and we decided we would always be together in the hard decisions and she wasn’t done,” said Patricia, and their persistence paid off with the help of Dr. John Couvaras, a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist and ob-gyn. Dr. Couvaras recommended two shots a day of blood-thinning medicine be added alongside the IVF shots (which are also pictured surrounding the baby).
About $40,000 later, London O’Neill was born on August 3. Photographer Samantha Packer helped them realize their vision, which they had had in mind from the start. “My wife saved every single needle that I injected, all capped and plastic seals around them and everything,” explained Patricia explained.
The image of baby London and the O’Neill’s struggle has struck a chord with people everywhere, wracking up 63K shares on Facebook.“I hope that there’s a couple out there that’s going through what we are that can see that there’s hope at the end of the tunnel,” expressed Patricia. “There’s a light and you just have to get there.”
Scroll down below to see images of this beautiful family!
This beautiful photo of newborn London O’Neill surrounded by over 1,616 needles is going viral
Image credits: Packer Family Photography
Samantha Packer is the photographer behind the image and the story of what it depicts is amazing
Patricia and Kimberly O’Neill knew they wanted a biological baby one year into their relationship
Image credits: Kimberly Ayn O’Neill
Both women have kids from previous relationships, Patricia a now 7-year-old daughter and Kimberly a now 14-year-old son
Image credits: Kimberly Ayn O’Neill
Patricia struggled to maintain a pregnancy due to a blood-clotting condition called Factor V Leiden. Her doctor recommended blood-thinners alongside the IVF, which are shown in the photo as well
Image credits: Kimberly Ayn O’Neill
“I was done and I couldn’t do it anymore. But my wife and I, we started this journey together, and we decided we would always be together in the hard decisions and she wasn’t done,” Patricia told CNN
Image credits: Packer Family Photography
She hopes their story will be an inspiration to other struggling couples, “There’s a light and you just have to get there”
Image credits: Packer Family Photography
Watch the loving couple tell their story
People were touched by the O’Neills and shared their own IVF journies and photos
I can’t be the only one but I’m genuinely confused by this narrative? Why risk your life (from the sounds of things the risk was huge in this case) just to have a kid who shares your DNA when you could, much less riskily have an equally amazing kid who, while not sharing your DNA, is in desperate need of a loving family? Plus, reading anecdotes from people who’ve adopted/had one blood and an adopted kid/ had genetic kids but not felt a ‘connection’ the ‘love quotient’ is basically the same. Is it because we worship pregnancy while convinently avoiding our overpopulation problem 🤔 or something else? (Despite what it seems I’m not trying to hate (well not a lot) I’m just genuinely confused).
I think you're right. We almost have a fetish with NEEDING to have a biological child even when the universe is clearly telling us to just give it up. It's really strange.
Load More Replies...Meanwhile there are almost 500,000 kids in foster care who would love to have a real home....
Have you adopted and/or fostered? What has your experience been like?
Load More Replies...What a waste of time and money. How stupid (and selfish) do you have to be to go thru all that nonsense just to have your "own" baby. People need to stop applauding efforts like these and label them for what they truly are - just a couple of ego manics that think they're oh so special that the world needs more of their genetic material in the human race. Bah, we should do what the Chinese did and tax these people out of existence.
Vonskippy: having the biological receipt for your baby is a beautiful thing. You're too stupid to understand. And that's OK.
Load More Replies...Saving 1600+ syringes, needles, pill bottles and what not and using them to surround your newborn so you can create "art"? This is not only bizarre but also tasteless in my book. Not to mention the time and the truck-load of money spent, and all those tweets and the media attention. I think there is a lot more going on in the heads of these two than just a simple desire to have (and deliver) a baby....
It's bragging. First, it's bragging that they had that kind of money to spend in the first place. Second, it's humblebragging that they were willing to suffer all kinds of illness and misery to do it. Third, the whole photo shoot, the whole story, the smarmy self-congratulation gig is designed to smack people in the face if they don't have or don't want kids.
Load More Replies...I was lucky to have been adopted as an infant. I smirk at cutesy stories like this thinking of how I could have rotted in the foster system if my parents decided to go the same route. There are TONS of children in the foster system, TONS, who weren't good enough for this family and have to continue to wait because they don't share the same genes. Bravo on your kid ladies, but whatever.
"This is the baby we prayed for" and then still turn to science. Sounds quite hypocrite to me...
I think this is insane. I am adopted but I didn't get the luck of being adopted when I was a baby but when I was 8 which has left a mark on me forever because of just how awful the foster care system is. I've been thrown from family to family, abused, and even raped you name it. When I was adopted though all that stopped because I finally had a family who loved me and wanted to see me grow I was no longer a number that belonged to the state but a person. Please adopt I'm begging that you spend your money towards a child who is dreaming for the day they can get a family and go home. We may not be biological but we will still love you and be grateful to you just as any child adopted or biological would be.
That picture is horrid. Saving the syringes was gross, since they are medical waste. Surrounding your baby with medical waste is grotesque. I don't see anything so special about these women's DNA that going to such extreme measures to pass it on was warranted. There are millions of children in the world that need a home, This story just continues to perpetuate the fallacy that only biological children are considered real family.
Feel free to down vote me, but at what point do you say "okay, we just need to stop and try something else?" I understand wanting a biological child, but why not do surrogacy if that's the case? Sure, these stories are touching, but I can't help thinking about what all of these treatments do to the mother on top of the heartbreak of multiple miscarriages.
You're just transferring the difficulties to someone else. And surrogacy is an additional expense, because yeah, surrogate has to undergo, the IVF procedure(s) too. Plus, you still have no guarantee that it will be successful.
Load More Replies...I`ll never understand the desire some people have to ONLY have biological children. Why risk your health, spend so much money and time, when you could have just adopted a child? Just cause you want them to have the same eye and hair colour as you?
My cousin and his wife tried to concieve a child naturally, went through IVF several times and when that didn`t work out and they had no other options (surrogacy is not really a thing in my country) they just divorced, because both of them really wanted a child, but didn`t even want to consider adoption, cause they didn`t want "a child with bad genes".
Load More Replies...This is why I want to be either a foster parent and/or adopt children. Some people just can't have kids and want to have medical help with reproducing, that is OK, but we need to help the kids that are already alive and suffering. Even though we are in America doesn't mean the system isn't broken.
As an adoptive father, I love to hear people wanting to adopt. I hope you can give some lucky child their forever family.
Load More Replies...Why all the hate? I thought this was a beautiful post about courage, strength and love. These two women chose not to adopt, and that's their decision. They persevered, even when it looked impossible, and now finally have a beautiful little baby to call their own. Adoption is an amazing thing to do, but so is this. So thanks for posting <3
I don't understand it either. It's the most natural thing to want to have a biological child and adoption isn't for everyone. Reading all these comments here makes me feel like all these people are just looking for an excuse to hate on people who choose to have children, since that's the in thing to do now.
Load More Replies...I guess I'm glad that people are having babies that otherwise wouldn't be able to, but all of these "heartwarming" stories seem designed to ignore the fact that some people simply cannot have children or have made the choice that the risk to themselves is just too much to handle. /// We don't know the long-term effects of all the drugs that are required to start and maintain these pregnancies. My concern - and I'm certain that it's being studied right now - is that massive overdoses of hormones will cause cancer later in life. The technology isn't old enough to have a real grip on the effects. /// The other part of this whole thing is that IVF and related technologies have a MASSIVE fail rate. Only something like 11% of these attempts result in a pregnancy and less than half of those pregnancies result in a living baby. It's expensive. It's time consuming. It's also difficult, painful and ultimately cruel for almost everyone who's willing to go there.
Messy, would love to know where you got the 11% successful pregnancy rate. Since you obviously have never undergone IVF, as evidenced by your comments, you should know some FACTS: -IVF treatments have been around 35 years. It's not a new technology. There's no one size fits all treatment since there isn't one specific reason for infertility. -Success rate (i.e. the live birth rate; yep a live baby) depends on age. If you are under 35, it's ~40%. If over 40, it is ~13%-18% (http://americanpregnancy.org/infertility/in-vitro-fertilization/). 40% might seem low, but statistically those be good odds. - Given the 35 year track record, there have been studies on long term effects of IVF. As of now, there has not been any definitive link found between cancer and IVF drugs :(https://www.bmj.com/content/338/bmj.b249), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK327768/ We (IVF patients) know the facts going into IVF. You need to stop deciding what we can or should be able to bear.
Load More Replies...Why would you put yourself through all this pain and trauma? I never did understand the "desperate for a baby" thing. Why can't people settle for either"we're fine as we are" or "if it happens, it happens", or alternatively foster or adopt?
There's not a single UNselfish reason to have kids.
Load More Replies...I can't imagine what it must be like to long for a child and not be able to have one. I'm one of those people who get pregnant literally first day of trying. It's just sad that IVF and adoption are so horrifically expensive. The issue with foster care can be that those poor kids have already suffered and been damaged. I guess people want to start with a clean biological slate maybe? I had one of my own, and later took in three that other people made. It's all a dice roll, regardless of how you do it.
I know it's relative, but it isn't necessarily expensive because in the US you can get a $13,000+ tax credit. That's a dollar for dollar credit, not a tax deduction, so it can substantially reduce the overall cost if not eliminate it entirely (in the case of an adoption not done through an agency).
Load More Replies...I would never go through something like this for more than one reason (and my genetic material isn't that great anyway). To each their own, I guess. BUT if you (hypothetical you) decide to go through with it don't go moaning about how long it took how expensive it was, how much you suffered because of it and expect too much sympathy from people who didn't and would never go through something like that. It was your decision, no one was forcing you and (I assume) you could have stopped at any time with the treatments before you got pregnant.
And please don't go calling it a miracle or a god's gift or something like it. You're insulting every doctor and scientist who made that possible for you (many of whom are dead - those must be turning in their graves)
Load More Replies...Having been through the adoption process in the US, one thing many people don't know is that adoption is NOT guaranteed! You can be too old, too sick (people who survived deadly illness are often turned away) and even state adoption is quite expensive. Most are open, so if the bio parent doesn't choose you you're SOL. Add to that the very real possibility of an older/foster child having lifelong SEVERE emotional/mental illnesses, and it's just not the magic bullet you pictured when you started. The no surrogate laws were written to keep gay folks from being parents (really!) and in private adoption children are priced according to how dark they are. Adoption is NOT for everyone!!
You could give birth to your own shining bundle of joy and end up with ALL of the same problems. Having kids is a c**p shoot. Rotten parents can have good kids and terrific parents can end up with a little sociopath.
Load More Replies...As I carry the Factor V Leiden gene also, I can sympathize with her in that regard. It feels like carrying a ticking time bomb in your body. I was told heparin injections for every day of the pregnancy - if I could conceive. Happy for the couple.
I find it interesting that they prayed to God for a baby, but when God didn't give them one they went to science instead, and talk about an extreme. Why not adopt a child? So many homeless children just wanting to be loved, and instead go to this extreme to have a biological one? I have kids, so i understand wanting that unique bond, but I'm pretty sure you'd fall in love with an adopted child as well. Also, that many hormones is going to wreak havoc on your body. The possibility of cancers in the future has skyrocketed for her.
That picture of the photography taking the picture made me a bit uncomfortable. I mean, just mistake and she could have easily have the camera drop on the baby or slip on the foot stool. I'm surprised nobody was there making sure the photographer didnt have an accident.
Argh. That photographer balanced on a stool, heavy camera over baby's head, makes me nervous though. As for the injections, I injected blood thinners, once a day for a week and I was completely fed up and sore after just that. This took some real determination. I couldn't have done it, especially having all ready had a child, I'd just stick with the one I think.
Everyone saying that they were stupid and wrong for creating a biological baby rather than adopting, Shut The F**k Up. It was these two wonderful mums' choice to do this, not yours. If you wanna adopt go ahead, I'm not stopping you. Yes, there are lots of children without families of their own, but there can be lots of difficulties in adopting as well as in creating a biological baby. They were not doing it for money, or advertisment, they were doing it BECAUSE THEY WANTED A CHILD. Why can't you people get that?
Im not against taking efforts but they could have easily adopted one or may be 2 in the expenses itself.
REALLY? This much plastic gone into landfill, and they already have a child each?! OVERPOPULATION is a thing you know! Selfish.
I can’t be the only one but I’m genuinely confused by this narrative? Why risk your life (from the sounds of things the risk was huge in this case) just to have a kid who shares your DNA when you could, much less riskily have an equally amazing kid who, while not sharing your DNA, is in desperate need of a loving family? Plus, reading anecdotes from people who’ve adopted/had one blood and an adopted kid/ had genetic kids but not felt a ‘connection’ the ‘love quotient’ is basically the same. Is it because we worship pregnancy while convinently avoiding our overpopulation problem 🤔 or something else? (Despite what it seems I’m not trying to hate (well not a lot) I’m just genuinely confused).
I think you're right. We almost have a fetish with NEEDING to have a biological child even when the universe is clearly telling us to just give it up. It's really strange.
Load More Replies...Meanwhile there are almost 500,000 kids in foster care who would love to have a real home....
Have you adopted and/or fostered? What has your experience been like?
Load More Replies...What a waste of time and money. How stupid (and selfish) do you have to be to go thru all that nonsense just to have your "own" baby. People need to stop applauding efforts like these and label them for what they truly are - just a couple of ego manics that think they're oh so special that the world needs more of their genetic material in the human race. Bah, we should do what the Chinese did and tax these people out of existence.
Vonskippy: having the biological receipt for your baby is a beautiful thing. You're too stupid to understand. And that's OK.
Load More Replies...Saving 1600+ syringes, needles, pill bottles and what not and using them to surround your newborn so you can create "art"? This is not only bizarre but also tasteless in my book. Not to mention the time and the truck-load of money spent, and all those tweets and the media attention. I think there is a lot more going on in the heads of these two than just a simple desire to have (and deliver) a baby....
It's bragging. First, it's bragging that they had that kind of money to spend in the first place. Second, it's humblebragging that they were willing to suffer all kinds of illness and misery to do it. Third, the whole photo shoot, the whole story, the smarmy self-congratulation gig is designed to smack people in the face if they don't have or don't want kids.
Load More Replies...I was lucky to have been adopted as an infant. I smirk at cutesy stories like this thinking of how I could have rotted in the foster system if my parents decided to go the same route. There are TONS of children in the foster system, TONS, who weren't good enough for this family and have to continue to wait because they don't share the same genes. Bravo on your kid ladies, but whatever.
"This is the baby we prayed for" and then still turn to science. Sounds quite hypocrite to me...
I think this is insane. I am adopted but I didn't get the luck of being adopted when I was a baby but when I was 8 which has left a mark on me forever because of just how awful the foster care system is. I've been thrown from family to family, abused, and even raped you name it. When I was adopted though all that stopped because I finally had a family who loved me and wanted to see me grow I was no longer a number that belonged to the state but a person. Please adopt I'm begging that you spend your money towards a child who is dreaming for the day they can get a family and go home. We may not be biological but we will still love you and be grateful to you just as any child adopted or biological would be.
That picture is horrid. Saving the syringes was gross, since they are medical waste. Surrounding your baby with medical waste is grotesque. I don't see anything so special about these women's DNA that going to such extreme measures to pass it on was warranted. There are millions of children in the world that need a home, This story just continues to perpetuate the fallacy that only biological children are considered real family.
Feel free to down vote me, but at what point do you say "okay, we just need to stop and try something else?" I understand wanting a biological child, but why not do surrogacy if that's the case? Sure, these stories are touching, but I can't help thinking about what all of these treatments do to the mother on top of the heartbreak of multiple miscarriages.
You're just transferring the difficulties to someone else. And surrogacy is an additional expense, because yeah, surrogate has to undergo, the IVF procedure(s) too. Plus, you still have no guarantee that it will be successful.
Load More Replies...I`ll never understand the desire some people have to ONLY have biological children. Why risk your health, spend so much money and time, when you could have just adopted a child? Just cause you want them to have the same eye and hair colour as you?
My cousin and his wife tried to concieve a child naturally, went through IVF several times and when that didn`t work out and they had no other options (surrogacy is not really a thing in my country) they just divorced, because both of them really wanted a child, but didn`t even want to consider adoption, cause they didn`t want "a child with bad genes".
Load More Replies...This is why I want to be either a foster parent and/or adopt children. Some people just can't have kids and want to have medical help with reproducing, that is OK, but we need to help the kids that are already alive and suffering. Even though we are in America doesn't mean the system isn't broken.
As an adoptive father, I love to hear people wanting to adopt. I hope you can give some lucky child their forever family.
Load More Replies...Why all the hate? I thought this was a beautiful post about courage, strength and love. These two women chose not to adopt, and that's their decision. They persevered, even when it looked impossible, and now finally have a beautiful little baby to call their own. Adoption is an amazing thing to do, but so is this. So thanks for posting <3
I don't understand it either. It's the most natural thing to want to have a biological child and adoption isn't for everyone. Reading all these comments here makes me feel like all these people are just looking for an excuse to hate on people who choose to have children, since that's the in thing to do now.
Load More Replies...I guess I'm glad that people are having babies that otherwise wouldn't be able to, but all of these "heartwarming" stories seem designed to ignore the fact that some people simply cannot have children or have made the choice that the risk to themselves is just too much to handle. /// We don't know the long-term effects of all the drugs that are required to start and maintain these pregnancies. My concern - and I'm certain that it's being studied right now - is that massive overdoses of hormones will cause cancer later in life. The technology isn't old enough to have a real grip on the effects. /// The other part of this whole thing is that IVF and related technologies have a MASSIVE fail rate. Only something like 11% of these attempts result in a pregnancy and less than half of those pregnancies result in a living baby. It's expensive. It's time consuming. It's also difficult, painful and ultimately cruel for almost everyone who's willing to go there.
Messy, would love to know where you got the 11% successful pregnancy rate. Since you obviously have never undergone IVF, as evidenced by your comments, you should know some FACTS: -IVF treatments have been around 35 years. It's not a new technology. There's no one size fits all treatment since there isn't one specific reason for infertility. -Success rate (i.e. the live birth rate; yep a live baby) depends on age. If you are under 35, it's ~40%. If over 40, it is ~13%-18% (http://americanpregnancy.org/infertility/in-vitro-fertilization/). 40% might seem low, but statistically those be good odds. - Given the 35 year track record, there have been studies on long term effects of IVF. As of now, there has not been any definitive link found between cancer and IVF drugs :(https://www.bmj.com/content/338/bmj.b249), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK327768/ We (IVF patients) know the facts going into IVF. You need to stop deciding what we can or should be able to bear.
Load More Replies...Why would you put yourself through all this pain and trauma? I never did understand the "desperate for a baby" thing. Why can't people settle for either"we're fine as we are" or "if it happens, it happens", or alternatively foster or adopt?
There's not a single UNselfish reason to have kids.
Load More Replies...I can't imagine what it must be like to long for a child and not be able to have one. I'm one of those people who get pregnant literally first day of trying. It's just sad that IVF and adoption are so horrifically expensive. The issue with foster care can be that those poor kids have already suffered and been damaged. I guess people want to start with a clean biological slate maybe? I had one of my own, and later took in three that other people made. It's all a dice roll, regardless of how you do it.
I know it's relative, but it isn't necessarily expensive because in the US you can get a $13,000+ tax credit. That's a dollar for dollar credit, not a tax deduction, so it can substantially reduce the overall cost if not eliminate it entirely (in the case of an adoption not done through an agency).
Load More Replies...I would never go through something like this for more than one reason (and my genetic material isn't that great anyway). To each their own, I guess. BUT if you (hypothetical you) decide to go through with it don't go moaning about how long it took how expensive it was, how much you suffered because of it and expect too much sympathy from people who didn't and would never go through something like that. It was your decision, no one was forcing you and (I assume) you could have stopped at any time with the treatments before you got pregnant.
And please don't go calling it a miracle or a god's gift or something like it. You're insulting every doctor and scientist who made that possible for you (many of whom are dead - those must be turning in their graves)
Load More Replies...Having been through the adoption process in the US, one thing many people don't know is that adoption is NOT guaranteed! You can be too old, too sick (people who survived deadly illness are often turned away) and even state adoption is quite expensive. Most are open, so if the bio parent doesn't choose you you're SOL. Add to that the very real possibility of an older/foster child having lifelong SEVERE emotional/mental illnesses, and it's just not the magic bullet you pictured when you started. The no surrogate laws were written to keep gay folks from being parents (really!) and in private adoption children are priced according to how dark they are. Adoption is NOT for everyone!!
You could give birth to your own shining bundle of joy and end up with ALL of the same problems. Having kids is a c**p shoot. Rotten parents can have good kids and terrific parents can end up with a little sociopath.
Load More Replies...As I carry the Factor V Leiden gene also, I can sympathize with her in that regard. It feels like carrying a ticking time bomb in your body. I was told heparin injections for every day of the pregnancy - if I could conceive. Happy for the couple.
I find it interesting that they prayed to God for a baby, but when God didn't give them one they went to science instead, and talk about an extreme. Why not adopt a child? So many homeless children just wanting to be loved, and instead go to this extreme to have a biological one? I have kids, so i understand wanting that unique bond, but I'm pretty sure you'd fall in love with an adopted child as well. Also, that many hormones is going to wreak havoc on your body. The possibility of cancers in the future has skyrocketed for her.
That picture of the photography taking the picture made me a bit uncomfortable. I mean, just mistake and she could have easily have the camera drop on the baby or slip on the foot stool. I'm surprised nobody was there making sure the photographer didnt have an accident.
Argh. That photographer balanced on a stool, heavy camera over baby's head, makes me nervous though. As for the injections, I injected blood thinners, once a day for a week and I was completely fed up and sore after just that. This took some real determination. I couldn't have done it, especially having all ready had a child, I'd just stick with the one I think.
Everyone saying that they were stupid and wrong for creating a biological baby rather than adopting, Shut The F**k Up. It was these two wonderful mums' choice to do this, not yours. If you wanna adopt go ahead, I'm not stopping you. Yes, there are lots of children without families of their own, but there can be lots of difficulties in adopting as well as in creating a biological baby. They were not doing it for money, or advertisment, they were doing it BECAUSE THEY WANTED A CHILD. Why can't you people get that?
Im not against taking efforts but they could have easily adopted one or may be 2 in the expenses itself.
REALLY? This much plastic gone into landfill, and they already have a child each?! OVERPOPULATION is a thing you know! Selfish.
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