Holly's Story
Common Ground - Alternatives After Prenatal Diagnoses Post New
From: HGARMON 10:57 pm
To: WMN4LIFE unread (3 of 3)
45.3 in reply to 45.2 prev
I am so glad this thread has been added to this forum. I believe that
"therapeutic" abortion and "interruption" of pregnancy are so many times overlooked by so many. I know I was one of the many who never
realized how prevalent and how much doctors pushed this type of abortion until I was faced with it this summer.
I was diagnosed with oligohydramnios (no amniotic fluid) at 17 weeks into my third pregnancy this past summer. We saw 3 maternal fetal doctors and all three asked us to terminate. I was told that 85% of the women diagnosed with oligo did "interrupt" their pregnancies. My doctors did not find this information welcome to me and one doctor told me I was welcome to go home and have my faith and prayers but the outcome would still be the same, my son would die.
I went home and I began to study oligo and found out that it is a secondary problem with 4 "common" causes, the most likely was a lack of kidneys or "Potter's Syndrome". As I stated earlier I had three specialists working on my case; of these three doctors only one believed my son had no kidneys at all. As I studied
further I found we only need one kidney to live and so I began focusing on finding something to overcome the oligo (even if the primary problem that causes the oligo would not in itself cause death to the child, the oligo causes the child's lungs not to develop and thus results in sure death of a child after birth.)
After much surfing I approached our main specialist with the idea of amnioinfusions. He stated he would not mind trying them but that they had not been studied and did not know if they would work. During the course of the next 8 weeks I had 4 or 5 infusions. Unfortunately one of these infusions became infected and I went into labor at 26 weeks. My son Caleb was born on July 5, 1999. As soon as he was born he let out the biggest cry! The doctors were astounded as he was born with a full set of lungs like any other premature child at 26 weeks, in fact the neonatologists said he had to be 28 weeks due to the lung maturity. Our oligo had been so severe they stated there was no way his lungs could have developed and began to inquire about what we had done.
I wish that I could report to you that my son was able to be with me today, but unfortunately after he was born it was discovered that his intestines and other digestive and organs related to excretion were not formed and he died from a toxin build up after 3 days. However, all the neonatologists and the maternal fetal doctors were convinced that had this child had even one kidney he would have been able to live due to the infusions. Our maternal fetal doctor told us that his practice was forever changed by these results and that he would now try to help women find other options besides just pushing termination. He said he learned that it may not always be in the woman's best interest to "interrupt".
I have begun trying to help women learn how to make this decision wisely. My step-mother and I are starting work on a workbook to get out to doctors to give to women in this situation. Unfortunately the doctors don't help the women with this decision unless they push them to "interrupt" and many times this causes more emotional damage in the end than carrying the pregnancy to it's natural conclusion. Another unfortunate result of these
premature "interruptions" is that many times the doctors are not correct in their diagnosis and the child is fine. The same doctor that worked so closely with us this summer just had another high risk case where the child supposedly did not have a lung and his heart was "completely" malformed and everyone thought this child would not live. This time the doctor did not push termination and the mother carried to term. The child was born with both lungs and NO heart defect.
I know first hand that the decision to "end" a "non-viable" pregnancy is not easy. We wrestled long and hard with the issue, and I have always been pro-life. This was the hardest decision that my husband and I had to ever make; I know we did the right thing. In the end Caleb did not live more than three days but I know that hope has been given to other children who might not have had hope before. We have to continue to fight for those
innocent lives to have a chance to have their voices heard. Truly the doctors' are trying to confuse many with their terms of "interrupted" pregnancy and telling women these are not abortions as the children could never have lived or have the quality of life you and I could have.
I hope to help women who are faced with this issue and hope to one day help bring this issue out in the public
realm. This is an area of great suffering that goes unnoticed too often.
Anyone reading this that needs to talk to someone about what you are going through or would like to know more about the workbook we are working on, please feel free to email me at Hgarmon@mindspring.com.
Holly
Reprinted by permission