Hello. My name is Christine Jenkins. I am 35 years old, god willing I will be 36 July 16th. I battled this while carrying my daughter not knowing I was pregnant! My daughter Aniyah now 3 was a huge surprise. I had 3 sitting on my uterus. They were the size of grapes. One morning I woke up in so much pain. Nothing I ever felt before. I decided to go get checked out. On September 12, 2017 I found out I had fibroids. The first thing that was mentioned was surgery. I turned it down right away and wanted to look into other options. I called my mom asking if it ran in the family. She only knew of in- laws having it. During the time I was dealing with stress in my professional and personal life. I had to change from wearing certain feminine napkins. I did my research and I couldn’t believe at how many black women are affected by this. I cried. Every time I went for check ups, not one time did anyone detect the fact that I was pregnant. Blood was drawn and urine samples were taken. I bled the entire time carrying my daughter. On January 20, 2018 I gave birth to a healthy baby girl. I suffered from a miscarriage a year prior. I went to seek help because I wasn’t expecting a child. I did prepare for it and to top it off I had a 12 year old already! She is my miracle child. For a long time I kept quiet about my issues but I want to share my story. I had people laugh at me. I had people even question if I knew I was pregnant. Nothing about my story is funny. I thank the lord every single day for watching over me during that time. Anything could’ve happened to me or my child. I am in a better place to speak on my truth. Thank you for your time. Thank you for listening.