Mother risks life for son

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Joe Lacdan
  • 509th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. (AFPN) --  Maria Reyes had a choice back in May 1995: Risk her life or get an abortion.

A doctor at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., told her that keeping her baby would put her life at risk.

Now-Staff Sgt. Reyes-Witak is assigned to the 72nd Test and Evaluation Squadron here. Then a single senior airman, she was a month into her pregnancy when the doctor gave her the news.

The Chihuahua, Mexico, native had been diagnosed with a form of cervical dysplasia before she became pregnant. It is a precancerous change of the cervix cells that could develop into cervical cancer. She said she could not receive the treatment necessary to fight the dysplasia because it could harm her baby. Sergeant Reyes-Witak faced a decision between keeping the baby and facing a 50 percent chance of survival, or getting an abortion and saving her health.

She kept the baby.

“The odds were against me,” Sergeant Reyes-Witak said. “I don’t think I thought about myself. I thought more about the baby than I did myself.”

While the reality of the health risks set in, she said she tried to continue on with her life as normal. Her friends and co-workers supported her during her pregnancy, giving her rides to appointments, bringing her food and movies, and keeping her company. She said she showed no emotion at work or around companions. But when she sat alone in her dorm room, the tears fell.

“There were a couple times I lost it,” she said. “I would think, ‘Why am I doing this?’”

She said the thought of seeing her son pulled her through. For inspiration, she also thought of the hardships she endured before her pregnancy. She said she remembered when she spent seven years in poverty growing up in the Mexican village of Delicias before she moved to New Mexico. She also thought of her father, who worked long hours as a farmer in New Mexico to put food on the table for his five daughters.

“My father said, ‘No matter what happens, if you put your mind to it, you can get through anything,’” she said.

Sergeant Reyes-Witak used that philosophy to push herself while pregnant. A few weeks later, sharp pains pierced her back. She began contracting in her second month of pregnancy. Her doctor told her she had high blood pressure and put her on bed rest.

Her anguish remained, but she shifted her focused to keeping her baby healthy, eating right and keeping appointments; but, she worried her son might have brain damage, be underdeveloped or have malfunctioning organs. An amniocentesis helped ease her doubts. Doctors took a tissue sample that revealed the child was in good health.

By her seventh month, the doctors could no longer stop the contractions with medication. She had to deliver the child one month early. Sergeant Reyes-Witak said she kept her fingers crossed.

“I looked at it as, ‘if God wants it to happen, it will happen,’” she said. “I tried not to let it bother me.”

She gave birth to a 5-pound, 6-ounce healthy boy, named Alberto. After the child’s birth, her dysplasia disappeared.

“I was relieved, happy and tired,” Sergeant Reyes-Witak said. “A lot of weight was lifted.”

Nearly eight years later, she lives with her son and husband, Staff Sgt. Anthony Witak, of the 509th Mission Support Squadron.

Her son, now a second-grader, inspires her and her husband, she said. Alberto enjoys playing soccer and participating in school activities.

“I think everything that’s happened to me has made me stronger,” Sergeant Reyes-Witak said. “I don’t take things too seriously now. I learned to appreciate little things.”

Her dysplasia resurfaced while serving in Korea and disappeared recently. She must still get periodic checkups for it. Her fear and the possibility of getting cervical cancer remains, she said; but for now, she has her life and her family.