CV NEWS FEED // A pro-life neonatologist recently shared the moving testimonies of three expectant families who, having received adverse prenatal diagnoses, chose to embrace life for their unborn children — no matter how short or long that life might be.
Dr. Robin Pierucci shared the families’ stories during a press conference on October 22 for a pro-life coalition’s launch of a declaration that calls for higher standards of medical care for women and unborn children.
“This declaration presents concrete, specific ways to improve pregnant women’s health care and begins the complicated discussion regarding prenatal testing,” Pierucci stated in a recent press release. “All of our patients’ lives are inherently valuable, which is why we promise to ‘do no harm’; this declaration provides a route to uphold our oath.”
Pierucci is the co-chair of the Pro-Life Committee for the American College of Pediatricians. She has been a practicing neonatologist for 24 years.
At the press conference, Pierucci spoke about prenatal testing, which she said is now a common and routine practice, sometimes done to find out the gender of the baby.
“Which means parents are usually caught completely off guard by news of a fetal abnormality,” Pierucci said, “and it is traumatizing.”
“Then, in this state of crisis, [the parents] are immediately and repeatedly asked about terminating life,” she said.
Pierucci later said that prenatal diagnoses are not often followed by giving parents the option to speak with specialists. She highlighted that “Prenatal diagnoses do not adequately describe postnatal prognosis. We do not know until after birth exactly how much or how little any child will be affected by what was diagnosed before they were born.”
“Even when we suspect that there are serious limits to what we can medically offer, it remains our duty to care and not prematurely abandon the little one, or their mother, or family,” she emphasized.
She also shared stories about three families whose unborn children underwent prenatal testing.
Madelyn
Madelyn’s mother was pregnant with twins. One of the unborn twins, Madelyn, had anencephaly, meaning she was missing much of her skull and brain.
Madelyn’s mother refused when high risk teams pressured her, on numerous occasions, to undergo a “selective termination” because of Madelyn’s condition.
Pierucci quoted Madelyn’s mother, who said, “The part they failed to mention was the unique bond I would have with my daughter, the beautiful moments throughout my pregnancy that are so sacred to me — you could see her personality loud and clear through every ultrasound. She was feisty.”
“Not only did she make it to 32 weeks and five days, but she lived for one hour and 34 minutes after she was born,” her mother said. “That was the most precious and sacred hour of my life. I could hear her heartbeat, and feel her warm skin against mine.”
Madelyn’s mother concluded: “She knew she was loved, and that is all she would ever know.”
Luke
Pierucci shared the testimony of another mother, whose son’s name is Luke.
The routine 20-week ultrasound for Luke detected that he had congenital heart disease, likely some neurologic abnormalities, and was measuring quite small, his mother said.
“While no diagnosis could be given for his constellation of findings, his situation was presented as hopeless by a number of maternal and fetal medicine doctors and genetic counseling team,” his mother explained. “And they said it warranted ending his life in the womb.”
“We were offered grim outcomes and a guarantee that our son’s life would cause him and our family great difficulty and suffering,” she continued. “Never was our family’s happiness, and love for our son, and desire to parent him, regardless of his health, [ever acknowledged].”
The family remained committed to Luke’s life and worked to find answers and ways to support him. His mother shared that if they had not been so committed in this way, “The harmful and coercive effects of the grim misinformation our family received could have led to his termination.”
Finally, they found help and interventions for Luke after meeting with a pediatric specialist.
After Luke was born, he lived for one month.
“The four weeks we had with him remain the most sacred, treasured time of our life,” his mother said. “I shudder to think how differently our grieving process would have been without this time with our precious little boy.”
Aurora
Lastly, Pierucci shared the story of Aurora, whose nickname is Roe.
When Roe’s mother was about 13 weeks pregnant with her, she received a diagnosis that Roe had Down Syndrome and fetal anomalies.
Pierucci explained, “Her mother was told that Roe would not survive the pregnancy due to severe complications including congenital heart disease, and a buildup of fluid on the trunk of her body, which was the beginning of hydrops, which is often fatal especially when early in pregnancy.”
“For several months,” Roe’s mother said, according to Pieurcci, “I went in weekly for fetal heart checks, fearing the appointment when the doctor could only find silence.”
But hope was kindled when Roe’s family received help from Be Not Afraid, an organization offering support and resources for families after receiving prenatal diagnoses.
“Roe’s life would, and could, be celebrated however it continued, whether in our memories or here on earth,” her mother said.
Roe was born at 38 weeks and 2 days, and “was the biggest baby in the NICU,” where she resided for 58 days, according to her mom. Roe has since undergone three open heart surgeries, and today, is a healthy, walking toddler.
Roe “is growing, thriving, and a very smart 3-year-old,” her mother shared. “This is the future we were never promised. And this future wakes up every morning and greets new day with a smile. I’m so grateful we never gave up on her, and she never gave up on us.”
The post Doctor shares moving testimonies of 3 families who received adverse prenatal diagnoses appeared first on CatholicVote org.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: McKenna Snow
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://catholicvote.org and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.