Tag: heartbreaking decision

D&E, No Fear or Regrets - an abortion for anencephaly

No Fear or Regrets

Posted on Sabrina FPosted in Anencephaly, D&E, Diagnoses, Neural Tube Defects, Stories

I was little more than life support for her and within minutes or possibly hours from birth, she would die, without any sense of me or anything around her. By Sara This is my story of ending a wanted pregnancy. I’m putting in lots of details because it’s what I was looking for when we first decided to terminate, but couldn’t find a story like mine. The Anatomy Scan—The Diagnosis My husband and I and our two-year-old live in Japan. My husband is active duty and got stationed here about three years ago. In late July, I was about 21 weeks along with our second child […]

Gabriella Grace - Termination for Turner Syndrome

Our Daughter, Gabriella Grace

Posted on Sabrina FPosted in Induction/L&D, Religious Perspectives, Stories, Turner Syndrome

 I believe in mercy, and that’s what we hopefully gave our daughter. By Chelsea “Not Compatible with Life.” Crushing words, that confirmed our worst fears. I remember blinking my tear-filled eyes, praying that by some chance of a miracle our daughter would survive. After 20 weeks of pregnancy, and exhausting every possible avenue of testing, willing and praying for our daughter to survive, we were faced with the reality that she would not.  The cystic hygroma and fluid had overtaken her body and she was struggling to survive. The Ultrasound I’ll never forget sitting in the OB’s office around my nine-week appointment, excited to hear the heartbeat […]

Abortion for CDH Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia

Kind, Compassionate Care When We Needed It Most

Posted on Sabrina FPosted in Congenital Diaphramatic Hernia (CDH), D&E, Stories

So much information was being explained to us. But I only heard the scary keywords: deformed, suffering, uncertainty of survival, termination. This was the most difficult news of our life. By Lillian Adam and I have been together for eight years, happily married for more than six, with two beautiful, healthy and extraordinarily happy and capable daughters. When we found out in June that I was pregnant with our third child, we were overjoyed. My pregnancy felt like all the others—morning sickness most of the day, exhaustion, lots of heartburn, and so much to look forward to. We were thrilled to add more love and […]

Trisomy 18 diagnosis - D&E termination

My Angel Amelia

Posted on Sabrina FPosted in D&E, Stories, Trisomy 18 (Edward's syndrome)

I wasn’t able to kiss her and tell her I loved her. I left empty handed with a broken heart. By Nicole Prior to the heartbreak From the moment I got pregnant my excitement and joy quickly faded and were replaced with fear. I thought this was normal because I was a first time mom. I feared the worst. When I called the doctor to make my initial appointment I got annoyed when they told me they would not see me until 9 weeks. Then I got furious when they said they would not give me an ultrasound until 20 weeks. I got so angry that I complained and […]

Termination for spina bifida and chiari malformation

My Sweet Cami

Posted on Sabrina FPosted in D&E, Neural Tube Defects, Spina Bifida, Stories

“I decided to make her baby book and have a necklace made with her would-be birthstone and the letter ‘C’ “ By Megan December 15th was a great day for my husband and I. We heard our daughter’s heartbeat for the first time and my husband was accepted to the police academy all on the same day. Life couldn’t get any better. Then in February we went in for the 20-week ultrasound. The tech was very cold and barely spoke as she took 70 images of our baby, measuring every inch. We figured this was routine and asked if we could know the gender. She […]

Severe spina bifida - Daddy's shoes - "Our gender reveal party was canceled because of the news of severe spina bifida that we got from the specialist. The crushing feeling still haunts me."

Daddy’s Shoes

Posted on gracePosted in Neural Tube Defects, Spina Bifida

We called several specialists around the country and Dana spent an entire day on the phone with the four big players in the fetal surgery specialty. In some cases, they can do surgery on the baby while still in-utero. All the specialists looked at our case of severe spina bifida and gave our son bleak prognoses.

What nobody tells you - Another 8 long days later, as I was getting ready for our appointment with the fetal cardiologist, our genetic counselor called with the amnio result. It had come back with a diagnosis of something called Mosaic Trisomy 13.

What Nobody Tells You

Posted on gracePosted in Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, Trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome)

Prenatal Diagnosis: Mosiac Trisomy 13 and HLHS Nobody tells you when you’re trying to get pregnant that things can go wrong and it could end badly. By Gina McGarey I didn’t want kids until I was in my 30s. This past summer we started trying. Fast forward about 4 months and we found out I was pregnant. We were both super excited and planned all of these different ways to tell our parents, siblings, and friends (I have some amazing videos of us telling most of them). This would be the first grandchild for all of our parents and the first great-grandchild for half of […]

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 […]

Spina bifida - I received the news that my expectant child, a precious baby boy, had an open spina bifida and Arnold Chari Malformation Type 2. Even as those words roll out my mouth now, I still cannot believe that this was and is my reality, exactly a month ago today.

Malachi, My Angel

Posted on gracePosted in Neural Tube Defects, Religious Perspectives, Spina Bifida

My husband bought a beautiful bonsai tree as a memento to remember Malachi by and to keep amongst us as a family. I take care of it as I would have taken care of him. by S.A. The day you realise your world as you know it has changed forever is a startling one. One that hits you like a ton of bricks. One when you question how the rest of the world is able to keep moving and functioning, oblivious to your the pain and suffering. That fateful day for me was the 10th November 2016. I received the news that my expectant child, […]

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 […]