When mum Michelle Macaulay was 12 weeks pregnant she was told that her baby was “incompatible with life”.
Medical staff repeatedly advised her and husband Steven to have an abortion after determining that her unborn child had a rare condition.
But Michelle and Steven refused and baby Carla defied expectations when she was born at 36 weeks.
Horrendous
Michelle first found out about Carla’s condition at her 12 week scan.
Speaking to the Daily Record, she commented: “They said the baby had a cystic hygroma, where the lymphatic system doesn’t develop properly. They didn’t expect the baby to make 20 weeks.
“To be told by a consultant the baby was incompatible with life was just horrendous because, looking at that screen, there was a life already started.”
She’s amazing
Carla was born at 36 weeks and is described as having an ‘undiagnosed genetic dysmorphic syndrome’.
Michelle said: “Babies like Carla are so rare. The experts say she could be the first in the world like her so they can only hope to learn from her for future kids.”
Referring to repeated advice to abort her child, she said: “She’s amazing. I’m so glad we didn’t listen to what we were told because we couldn’t imagine life without her.
Worth it
“She has taught us so much. It’s been a journey but she’s been worth it.”
Last month, parents of children who were deemed to be ‘incompatible with life’ headed to the United Nations in Geneva for the start of a campaign to discontinue the use of the diagnosis.
They launched a declaration affirming that the term ‘incompatible with life’ is not a medical diagnosis and should not be used to describe an unborn baby who may not live for very long after birth.
