Living with cancer involves many medical appointments. So does being pregnant.

Ottawa’s Jillian O’Connor is experiencing both of those at the same time.

The mother of two said she was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer during her latest pregnancy.

The 31-year-old is now 36 weeks pregnant and has undergone a mastectomy and 11 rounds of chemotherapy.

Jillian O'Connor was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer after becoming pregnant with her third child. (CBC)

"It was a bit scary because you know, when you're pregnant you don't want to have a soda that has aspartame, you don't eat cold cuts, you don't have anything bad," she said.

O'Connor's oncologist said treatment couldn’t wait until after the baby is born because the cancer had spread to her liver.

"There's no way we could have kept her alive — because of the cancer in her liver — long enough to deliver a healthy baby," said Dr. Mark Clemons.

"What we've done in this particular situation is choose a cocktail of treatments that will enable the cancer to shrink as much as possible. Keep the mom well, but also not harm the baby."

Mom given two years to live

While Dr. Clemons said he's only treated two other pregnant women with incurable cancer in the last 20 years, both he and O’Connor said they're optimistic the baby will be born without complications.

Dr. Mark Clemons says this is the third time he's treated a pregnant woman with incurable cancer. (CBC)

O’Connor has been given two years to live, a diagnosis her doctor said could change once the baby has been delivered.

"We did an ultrasound, we did a chest X-ray because we know that's safe and then once the baby is born we will scan her from head to toe," Dr. Clemons said.

Whatever happens past her pregnancy, O’Connor said she’s trying to focus on delivering a healthy baby.

"Obviously I want to be the primary caregiver of my children forever and ever and ever but I also know that there's so many people so close by who love them," she said.

O'Connor is due to be induced in two weeks.