By Sarah Terzo
Dee Bird was told her baby had Down syndrome and that she only had a 1% chance of surviving until birth. Abortion was suggested, but Bird decided to have her daughter Amellia.
She says:
“As long as Amellia is healthy and strong, she was showing me that she was putting up a fight, to beat those odds, then I wasn’t going to take that away from her.”
Bird says doctors gave her very little support when she decided to carry to term:
“The midwife I was talking to, she was able to give me this folder, like a little binder folder… and another pamphlet on two organizations that deal with pregnancy loss and they help out with funerals, and it’s got all the planning, so I had all the information possible if she didn’t make it, but they weren’t even able to refer me to Down Syndrome Victoria. Everything was worst case scenario and I think that was the hardest thing to deal with.”
Australian show Lateline with Barbara Miller, Nov 22 2016.
Editor’s note. This appears at Clinic Quotes and is reposted with permission.