Ashley Wingard Reveals the Heart of MAPS
By Meg Hale Brunton
“Do you understand what is going on?” the doctor asked Ava, Ashley Wingard’s oldest child. “I have a boo-boo on my heart,” answered the three-year-old, “and you’re gonna fix it.”
The ‘boo-boo’ that Ava was referring to was Atrial Septal Defect (ASD), a birth defect in which there is a hole in the wall that divides the upper chambers of the heart. Ava was diagnosed when she was seven months old after her pediatrician heard a murmur-like sound while examining her for a cold and ear-infection. From then on, Wingard and her daughter went through a barrage of ultrasounds, and EKGs, seeing specialists and cardiologists from Asheville to Charlotte, NC.
She was deemed a good candidate to receive a corrective device that was, at the time, still being tested by the FDA. Wingard recalls the agony of waiting in the hospital while her daughter underwent heart surgery, and the terror that followed when the surgeon appeared in front of her long before the surgery should have been completed to tell her that the hole in her baby’s heart was too large and the wrong shape for the device to fit into. “I had been through the crying process already since she was seven months old,” Wingard remembers. “I was all over the place at this point.”
The family was referred to another doctor, who assured her that, although there are undeniable risks associated with open-heart surgery, he hadn’t lost a patient yet. This doctor was able to repair Ava’s heart with bovine material instead of a device. The operation corrected the issue and allowed Ava to live life with no restrictions. Today, she is an average thirteen-year-old with the exception of a scar on her chest. “We tell her, ‘Don’t hide it,’” says Wingard, referring to Ava’s scar. “‘That’s part of you.’”
After that experience, Wingard was relieved to say that her second child was born with no defects, save knock-knees and intoeing. After her marriage to Ava’s father ended, Wingard went on to get remarried to her husband, Bob, who was twenty-three years her senior. Despite the age gap, the couple decided they wanted to have children together.
After getting pregnant, Wingard immediately went to MAPS. Mountain Area Pregnancy Services (MAPS) is a provider of compassionate prenatal and postnatal services, including free pregnancy tests and limited OB ultrasounds, parenting education, support for families who receive a life-limiting prenatal diagnosis, and grief counseling for pregnancy or infant loss.
Sadly, Wingard suffered a miscarriage shortly before her eight-week ultrasound. She recalls how supportive and sympathetic the staff at MAPS was, telling her to give her body time to heal and offering her access to their grief counseling services. “I sometimes wish I had taken advantage of that,” Wingard admits.
She and her husband were devastated, and had no luck getting pregnant for months after that. “I was sick of taking pregnancy tests that came up negative,” recalls Wingard. “I said to my husband, ‘If it happens, it happens. If not, we’ve still got each other.” Convinced that she had suffered some internal damage during her miscarriage and couldn’t get pregnant, Wingard was stunned when she finally took a pregnancy test that came up positive.
“My first pregnancy, I was completely lost, and had no clue where to go or who to call,” Wingard explains, recalling suffering awful Braxton-Hicks contractions during her pregnancy with Ava that had her scared she would go into labor at any moment. “I was in a straight panic.” She was also terrified of having another miscarriage after the loss of her 3rd pregnancy, and starving for the level of support and educational services that MAPS provides.
Photos by Brooke Parker Photography
MAPS confirmed her new pregnancy at four weeks with a free pregnancy test and limited OB ultrasound, and stayed by her side throughout her pregnancy, as well as the one that followed it. Now, a mother of four, Wingard cannot imagine going through another pregnancy without MAPS. “I absolutely love the ladies they’ve got there. They’re extremely supportive of everything. They’re always making sure the family is doing okay,” she says of MAPS. “They have gotten to know my family so well that the kids have started inviting them to their birthday parties.”
Other than MAPS’s fantastic team, Wingard also says she found their free BrightCourse Parenting Curriculum to be invaluable to her skills as a mom. She started the course during the seventh month of her pregnancy with her daughter, Harley. Wingard watched her first 20-30 minute video on her computer and took the multiple choice quiz at the end. She liked it so much, she continued the course throughout the remainder of her pregnancy. “The parenting program really helps and takes a lot of stress off,” Wingard says. “They offer so much, and each client is provided a mentor to discuss the videos and their pregnancy journey. They keep adding more and more videos! I have used so much from those videos. It opens your eyes! You can modify it to fit your every-day life.” Wingard says that the courses progress beyond pregnancy to cover toddlers, potty training, and even blended families.
Besides providing legitimate parenting tips, parents who complete the BrightCourse classes earn points that can be redeemed for rewards like diapers, baby bottles, Graco Pack ‘n Plays, nursing supplies and backpacks. Through MAPS, Wingard also found a welcoming community of parents. She says that the MAPS mothers are extremely supportive of one another, and are always there to share advice, as well as hand-me-downs. “It’s almost like having another family, is the way they make me feel,” Wingard says.
Although MAPS does not offer abortion services, Wingard says that their main goal is to help parents who are confronted with an unplanned pregnancy through support, rather than judgement. “They do not discriminate,” Wingard explains. “They discuss everything with the parents that come in because they believe women and men need and desire truthful and accurate information to make a healthy decision for their family. Yes, they are Pro-Life, but they provide the best care for everybody with no judgement. They are a Christian facility, but they do not judge.”
Though she is a stay-at-home mom for the second time in her life, Wingard is an avid volunteer with her church and within her community. She is also a very active bowler, stating that she was almost born in a bowling alley. Looking back at all the hardships she’s suffered as a mother, Wingard feels a supreme sense of gratitude that groups like MAPS were there to help mothers like herself. “MAPS is there,” Wingard says. “The amount of support that they provide to anybody that walks through those doors is overwhelming. They always greet you with a smile, and you leave more knowledgeable and at ease. They are just the sweetest people in the world.”
For more information on Mountain Area Pregnancy Services, visit their website: www.mtnpregnancy.com