Lauren Farrelly had to undergo surgery after her placenta accreta diagnosis
Credit: BBC Jersey/Facebook
NEED TO KNOW
- Lauren Farrelly was diagnosed with placenta accreta at 31 weeks pregnant, requiring an early delivery and major surgery
- The Family First charity supported Farrelly’s family by covering travel and accommodations during her hospital stay
- Farrelly has since recovered and is raising awareness about the charity’s work for families needing off-island medical care
A woman was pregnant with her second child when she was told she had a rare complication that left her "frightened."
Lauren Farrelly was at 31 weeks of pregnancy with her son, Nico, when she was diagnosed with placenta accreta, according to the BBC.
The rare pregnancy complication happens when the placenta grows deeply into the uterine wall, and it can cause severe blood loss after giving birth, per the Mayo Clinic.
"It was very traumatic because one day I was at work and everything was great, and then the next the next day we were packing our bags and we were moving to Southampton," Farrelly said.
When Farrelly gave birth to her first child, daughter Thea, she had a cesarean birth, and she had no complications.
Credit: Getty
With Nico, she had him five weeks prematurely and then underwent an eight-hour operation at Southampton Hospital in the U.K.
Farrelly and her partner, Dom Beckford, received support from the Family First charity while she was at the hospital.
The organization paid for flights and accommodation for Thea and other family members to visit them while they were away from home on the island of Jersey.
She called them an "amazing charity" and said they made a "really hard situation a bit more manageable."
"They just wanted to make the experience as less stressful and bearable as possible. I don't know how we would have coped without them," Farrelly added. "There'll be so many more families in Jersey that need the support from this charity and people aren't aware that it even exists."
Family First CEO Cheryl Dobel told the BBC that they aim to have "somebody at the end of the phone for families who have a child that needs to go off island for medical treatment."
"A family support worker will introduce themselves, find out what exactly it is that they need, where are they going, what are they most worried about and then they pull together a plan of support with the family," Dobel continued. "We want more families to know about us because, on average, 250 families will go off-island a year and we support around 100 to 150, so there's more families that need our support."
In a November 2025 Instagram post from Family First, Nico was taken to neonatal intensive care and Farrelly didn't get to meet her baby boy until later that night.
Credit: Getty
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Since then, Farrelly was cleared by doctors to return home after recovering for six days — and they have enjoyed their life as a family ever since.
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