Natalie Brown and Peter Gordon were told their baby would not survive and an ultrasound scan doctors performed suggested the unborn child had a terminal condition. They prepared themselves for her death and even began planning for a funeral, but then their child was born healthy.
They were overjoyed when baby Elsie was delivered full of life and she eventually left the hospital with a much less serious medical condition than initially thought.
LifeNews has profiled hundreds of parents in similar situations over the years where doctors have suggested abortion of a baby who supposedly had little or no chance at life and who were born totally health or much more healthy than the dire predictions delivered before birth. Thankfully this couple didn’t decide to have an abortion and snuff out their child’s chance at life.
Natalie Brown, 32, and her partner Peter Gordon, 42, had been told a rare terminal condition meant their daughter, Elsie, would either be stillborn or die shortly after birth.
But to everyone’s complete shock, the baby was born full of life.
In fact, Elsie proved so well that she was discharged for her overjoyed parents to take home just five days later.
Ms Brown, from Evesham, in Worcestershire, said: ‘It feels like a miracle after being told they were 99 per cent sure she would die. In the end we had to try and accept it and prepare for the worst.
‘We had even started to arrange her funeral. I have to keep pinching myself. I can’t believe how lucky we have been to have her home.
The drama started at the 20-week scan when the parents-to-be were told there were abnormalities with their baby daughter’s legs.
Ms Brown said: ‘Scans revealed she had club feet and her knees and hips were fixed in a contracted position, a bit like a kneeling Buddha. Nobody could tell us why.’
The couple were given the option to terminate their pregnancy then, but refused to make any decisions until they knew what was causing the abnormalities.
Ms Brown explains: ‘There was no way we were going to abort our baby just because she had club feet or problems with her legs.
‘Disabilities are not a barrier to a happy life. But the doctors were concerned that the disabilities may have been caused by a genetic condition with much more serious implications.’
The couple remained positive, but when at 32-weeks their baby’s movements slowed dramatically, Ms Brown returned to the hospital for more scans fearing the worst.
Tragically, they revealed that the baby’s arms were now still, leading medics to conclude she did have the condition and it was spreading.
Ms Brown said: ‘We were taken into a side room after the scan and told our baby had a less than one per cent chance of survival.
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Ms Brown said: ‘We are in no way at all angry about what has happened, just so pleased that they were wrong or Elsie wouldn’t be here today.
‘It is such a rare condition and so very hard to diagnose that we know the medics were only doing their very best by telling us what all the signs pointed to.
‘Thankfully, it doesn’t appear now to be the case and we couldn’t be more delighted about that.
