Category: Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome)

The Right Decision for Our Family - Termination for T21

The Right Decision for Our Family

Posted on Sabrina FPosted in D&E, Stories, Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome)

…to spare everyone a future with lots of pain, suffering, burden and resentment, I made a choice I never thought I would make… By Lauren On October 22nd we found out we were pregnant. I was so excited, but also so nervous about  having a newborn again. Our routine as a family of four was getting “easy” – both my kids slept through the night, they only took one nap and I knew what to expect of their personalities. Nevertheless, I wanted one more and we were lucky to get pregnant on our second month trying. I already had one girl and one boy and this […]

Mariana - Terminating after hydrops, cystic hygroma, and T21 diagnosis (Down Syndrome)

Mariana

Posted on gracePosted in Fetal Hydrops, Induction/L&D, Stories, Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome)

It was almost like she came out in her bubble, protected from the outside world. By Andrea My husband and I were excited when we found out that I was pregnant. We have a three-year-old daughter and this baby would have been born around the same time our daughter started kindergarten. Everything happened as planned; it was a very expected pregnancy. The first ultrasound was at 12 weeks. I wasn’t very concerned. It was probably because we didn’t have any problems during our first pregnancy and our daughter was born healthy. Even though my husband really wanted to be there, he couldn’t make it for […]

Trisomy 21 - He said my baby would never be a special Olympian and would need immediate, emergency heart and bowel surgery. And that was if the baby made it to term.

Ethan’s Story

Posted on gracePosted in Congenital Heart Defects, D&E, Religious Perspectives, Stories, Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome)

God met me where I was. While He didn’t give me the miracle I had hoped for, the one I had prayed for, miracles came in other ways, through my friends, family, and the nurses and doctors taking care of me. By C.J. This is Ethan’s story–my youngest son. It started out much like I thought for a third pregnancy. I have two healthy children, a girl, age five, and a boy, age three. I was sick with morning/all day sickness. When you are that sick and you have been through it twice before, it is hard to be too excited, but my husband and […]

Trisomy 21 - The hardest part in all this was wanting her so badly.

Hope Crushed

Posted on gracePosted in Stories, Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome)

The hardest part in all this was wanting her so badly. By J.G. After having a miscarriage at eight weeks this year, I found out I was pregnant again at around six weeks. I was excited and nervous to be pregnant so soon after miscarrying. I made it past the eight weeks scary zone and I had my first appointment with the genetics counselor at 12 weeks to determine any risks associated with my pregnancy. We opted to do an ultrasound and the new cell-free fetal DNA (Panorama) testing. The ultrasound looked wonderful and showed no soft markers for any kind of birth defects. I […]

Down Syndrome - After the amnio results came back confirming the diagnosis, we were faced with the reality that our baby boy was not okay.

Our Baby Boy

Posted on gracePosted in D&E, Stories, Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome)

After the amnio results came back confirming the diagnosis, we were faced with the reality that our baby boy was not okay. By J.D. I have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), so when my husband and I decided to try getting pregnant earlier this year, we had a difficult time finding that “window” due to my irregular cycles. We were referred to a fertility office where we started months of testing to narrow down the issue and come up with a plan. My husband tested fine and it was determined that I had plenty of eggs, they just weren’t ovulating themselves. We would do ovulation induction […]

Real, not hypothetical

Posted on gracePosted in D&E, Stories, Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome)

by R.S. I was living abroad with my spouse and our 2-year-old daughter when I found out I was pregnant. It was an enormous but welcome surprise. I have polycystic ovarian syndrome and it had taken over two years of fertility treatments and two rounds of IVF to conceive our daughter. I didn’t think I could get pregnant spontaneously, and had planned on doing IVF once we moved back to the US a couple of years later. I wanted to be happy, to celebrate the pregnancy, but it just seemed too good to be true. So at first I anticipated miscarriage. Every time I used […]

Survival & Strengthening

Posted on gracePosted in Induction/L&D, Multiple Losses, Stories, Trisomy 18 (Edward's syndrome), Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome)

By Anne Mellinger-Birdsong Survived is used in the sense of being stronger for having accomplished a major challenge. I have survived The death of my mother Before I was married Before I had children. I have survived The loss of 3 babies Much wanted and much loved, And that has changed me more Than anything else that ever happened. I have survived The questions and harangues From people who didn’t understand Or flat out disagreed With our decision to induce labor When we found out our baby had Down syndrome (Trisomy 21). Who didn’t know all the medical problems that go with Down syndrome Who […]

Q&A: Would it have made me a better person?

Posted on gracePosted in Omphalocele, Opinion, Q&A, Stories, Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome)

Have a question for Ending a Wanted Pregnancy? Email us. QUESTION I terminated my pregnancy following a poor prenatal diagnosis of omphalocele. Recently, I read a memoir called Expecting Adam by Marsha Beck, the mother of a child with Down syndrome who learned of his condition prenatally and chose to continue her pregnancy. It’s making me wonder if a better person would make a different choice than I did. After reading it, I’ve started to second-guess my decision. What if we’d been more willing to change our priorities? If we’d readjusted our life goals? What if I had continued the pregnancy? Would my living children grow to become stronger, gentler […]

The Worst Day of My Life

Posted on gracePosted in D&E, Stories, Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome)

By M.V. I am 37 years old and have a healthy 22 month old boy at home. My first pregnancy was a breeze, and I assumed my second one would be as well. At my 12-week ultrasound—which was the day before my birthday— my toddler got fussy so I told my husband to go home with him and that I’d call him after going over the results with my doctor. My doctor walked in and said she had not liked what she saw on the ultrasound, including the absence of nasal bones and a high nuchal fold of 5.2, both indicators of Down syndrome. I was shocked. […]