Kate, already mom to one daughter, terminated her second pregnancy at 36 weeks. She named the daughter she lost Rose.

By Rachel Bertsche

When Kate, a 29-year-old mom outside Boston, found out she was pregnant with a second daughter, she was elated. Then, at 36 weeks along, she got the news that is every expecting parent’s worst nightmare: Her baby, who she would later name Rose, had two brain malformations. Kate decided to have abortion, and eventually found solace in a support group on the website Ending a Wanted Pregnancy. The online community is for parents who terminate pregnancies for medical reasons (pregnancies they wanted, but chose to end after a severe prenatal diagnosis or maternal health issue) and who often feel alone or ashamed, and suffer in silence. Kate, one of the site’s administrators, shared her story with Yahoo Parenting’s Rachel Bertsche. 

My husband and I always wanted a big family.  We wanted to have a lot of kids and to start young and have them close together. In 2010, we had our first. A healthy baby girl. But when we were ready for number two, getting pregnant — or, rather, staying pregnant — was harder. I had three miscarriages before a pregnancy finally stuck. I was expecting a second little girl in the summer of 2012, and everyone around me said everything looked great.

Well, almost everyone. At my 18-week fetal scan, a technician thought she saw something – she wasn’t sure what, exactly — so they sent me for a Level 2 ultrasound at a local teaching hospital. “Level 2” meant that it would be more detailed than the standard sonogram, and a maternal fetal medicine (MFM) specialist would look at it. Read the rest of this story, What Kind of Mother is 8 Months Pregnant and wants an Abortion? at Yahoo Parenting.

Originally published at Yahoo Parenting. Snippet published here by permission of Yahoo Parenting and Rachel Bertsche.