Would you continue pg? - from Shelly's post baby w/o face

kimberley wrote: i was watching the show on TLC also about the baby w/o a face and it kind of bothered me because they detected defects at 4mos pg. i am very pro-life but in this situation, i am very unsure. that poor baby has undergone 18 surgeries in her first 2yrs of life. at birth, she couldn't see, hear, breath or eat. it would be torture for me to watch a baby suffer like that

5littleladies replied: I can't predict how I would react in any situation, but I still have to say yes I would continue the pregnancy. I am strongly pro-life and I have to believe that God would give both me and my child the strength to make it through any situation that would come our way. I don't believe it is my decision to take the life of a child-regardless of the circumstances. It would be very difficult though.

mummy2girls replied: im not sure. Its hard... but it depends on the severity ... When i was pregnant they showed that the baby may have spina bifada and i had to have amnios and such. I fi t came back positive for spina bifada i would not terminate. But there are way more severe defects then that so im not sure. I guess if put in that situation i would know...

Edward's Mommy replied: I'm not sure. I don't think I would because I'm pro-life no matter what!!

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied: I'm not 100% sure, but I believe I WOULD most likely continue the PG.

Edward's Mommy replied:
I don't think I would have an abortion is what I meant to say...it wouldn't let me edit!

Edited for typos...I'm not with it tonight!

holley79 replied: I saw that one on TLC also. I don't know what I would do either. I guess I would have to be put in that position to really know what I would do. So bottom line I voted unsure. My heart really broke for that little girl.

~Roo'sMama~ replied:
I agree. You said it better than I could have.

luvbug00 replied: I don't think i could. finacialy I couldn't begin to afford a child with this deformity. emotionaly I couldn't put a child threw all the surgeries and henceforth neglet my first because of it. Finaly I'd have to be in the situation to give a 100% answer.

MamaJAM replied: Yes - I could never terminate a pregnancy...for ANY reason. Though - depending on the extent of the baby's disablilty - we might refuse any medical treatments after birth.

jcc64 replied: I'm with Nadia on this one.

MamaJAM replied: WARNING -- this reply mentions infant-death.....






I wanted to add.....when I was pregnant with DS#2 I knew a woman on-line who was preg and due about a month before me. She discovered at 14-15 weeks that her baby had severe defects.....they did many u/s and tests. Long story short - she knew her baby would not be able to live once born without tons of serveriges...and even then life would be an every-moment struggle. She did not end the pregnancy - she said she wanted to "spend as much time with her baby as possible". The pregnancy wasn't complicated -- she was able to carry him until 38 weeks when she went into labor on her own. He was born late in the evening and lived for only a few hours before falling asleep. They chose to do nothing medically to try and keep him alive - once the baby was born - mom and dad were able to just hold him.
It was a sad situation and time...but she felt she did the right thing - and they were able to hold their precious tot in their arms. Personally - I know that if I was in that situation....I would have handled it the same way that she did.

BAC'sMom replied: That’s a tough one…. But I guess I would say yes. I had a very bad experience with my 1st born PG. DH and I went to have genetic testing because we have a few birth defects that run in our families (Down’s NOT being one of them). During this time we had a blood test (Triple Test) come back that I was high risk my having a baby with Down’s syndrome. We were asked to do an amniocentesis but we refused because of the risk for miscarriage. Due to the fact that we had had a previous miscarriage. For weeks we were called and harassed by the genetic specialist about OUR decision not to have an amnio. I finally asked her why was she calling our decision was made, what we have we are going to take home and love no matter what. She informed that she thought my decision to carry to term was selfish.
Now I asked you to look at my DS #1 picture and tell me was my decision right? He doesn’t have Down’s syndrome and even if he did he’s still my child!

Needless to say I didn’t have the Triple Test done with any of my other’s PGs.

A&A'smommy replied:
I couldn't have said it any better!

ashtonsmama replied: That's a super hard call-so sad...

But I think I would have to say yes...because I think the baby had a right to live anyways...but with all the surgeries and stuff...that's gotta be horrible...

mckayleesmom replied: I don't know what I would do honestly. In one way I would want my baby no matter what....and in another I would have to question my wants over what this child would go through to stay alive and be normal.

Heather77 replied: I'm unsure, but I lean more towards not continuing with the pregnancy. I'm Pro-Choice, but in cases like Down's and Spina Bifida, I would continue with the pregnancy.

b&bsmom replied: I believe I would probably continue but I don't know. As someone else had said I would want my baby no matter what , but I wouldn't want to bring a baby into the world that was going to suffer. It is a hard decision.

My2Beauties replied: That is something I honestly couldn't answer unless faced with that situation. I honestly have no idea what I would do. I would not want my child to suffer. I'm pretty pro-life for the most part, that is the one thing that I am not liberal about, only because I think people abuse their abortion rights, but I do have certain situations where I believe it's the mother's decision and this is one of those calls. I would never think negatively of a person if they did term a pregnancy such as this AND I could see where they were coming from if they did. But my answer is I honestly do not know what I would do. That is a sad situation.

kimberley replied:
your specialist had no right to say that to you! how unprofessional! your DS is beautiful and i totally understand why you made the decision you did.

mummy2girls replied:
my first 2 i had that triple test done and it showed both time pos for possibility of spina bifada. so with my last pregnancy i decided not to because it would be too hard on me... Those tests have such a high false positive rate...

My3LilMonkeys replied:
I couldn't have said it any better.

Cece00 replied: I would not continue with a pregnancy if the child had severe birth defects/deformities.