"We can terminate today"
That was the doctor's response.
It was less than half an hour before that I had just been told my baby girl
had severe Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus.
This is her story.....
My husband was with our 3 other daughters in the car park of the Alice
Springs Hospital. We had just had a scan and took the girls in with us to see
their sister. As we had come from Tennant Creek- a 5 hour drive away, I said
I'd be ok to go to the Drs Office and get the results alone while he took the
girls outside for a run around. Little did I know what I was about to be told. I
had already had an idea what was wrong as I saw the ultrasound report on
the midwife's desk and as I had previously in 1996 terminated my son at 26 weeks who had Spina Bifida and anencephaly (doctors recommendations) I understood the terminology in the report.
I called my husband and said he needed to come up to the office. I was in
tears already and as he asked what was wrong all I could reply was "it's the
same as Jakob". Of course it was partly different but I was in no state to go
into details on the phone.
I waited for him in the office with the doctor who started to tell me that our
baby would not survive and they could organise the termination that
afternoon. I was sitting in the chair next to the desk with a box of tissues,
pulling them out one by one, wiping the tears dripping down my cheeks. I was
a mess. None of this had actually sunk in and she was talking about
termination.
Whose choice is this hers or ours?
No comments:
Post a Comment