My son Gavin recently turned 13. My husband and I call him our miracle baby, but I don’t think he fully understands why. When he was little, we just told him I was sick while I was pregnant with him. The truth is a bit more complicated.

I was diagnosed with stage IB1 cervical cancer at age 32, after a routine Pap test. At the time, I was nine weeks pregnant. But thanks to MD Anderson, my son is alive and well — and so am I....