A brave mother risked her life to deliver a healthy baby girl defying doctors who advised her to abort the baby.
Donna Hewetson’s pregnancy was causing her to produce hormones which caused tumours to develop on her vital organs, rupturing a kidney. The pregnancy also caused another condition which caused her to suffer a lung collapse.
However, the 29-year-old was determined to bring her daughter into the world after enduring the grief of an earlier miscarriage.
Baby
And even though baby Lily was delivered three months early, weighing just 2lb 7oz, the youngster was given the all-clear after nine weeks in an incubator.
Describing her experience Mrs Hewetson said: “Losing my first baby was absolutely devastating for me and my husband – and I knew with Lily, I was prepared to risk my life for her.
“I’d always dreamed about becoming a mum, and when I finally got pregnant, there was no way I was giving up on my baby.
Instinct
“It was a really frightening time – we both knew that the longer I was pregnant, the more tumours I had growing inside me – but my maternal instinct was too strong to even contemplate a termination.”
Although Mrs Hewetson may need a lung transplant in the future, she has been put on a trial drug that has relieved many of her symptoms.
Earlier this year another mum, Victoria Webster, who was advised to abort her baby after being diagnosed with leukeamia said that continuing her pregnancy was the “best decision” she had ever made.
Refused
Mrs Webster was 21 weeks pregnant when she learned she had cancer of the blood. Doctors told her to have an abortion so she could start chemotherapy.
But she refused to have an abortion and now both she and her baby daughter, Jessica, are doing well.
