A married couple who resisted “constant pushing” to abort their baby girl after she was diagnosed with a rare condition have shared their joy following her successful surgery.
Nicole and Mike were informed at a 13-week scan that baby Bella had a encephalocele, where a sac of brain tissue forms outside of the skull. Children with the condition have around a 55 per cent survival rate.
But Nicole went on to give birth to Bella at 35 weeks, and doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, successfully removed the encephalocele and will continue to monitor her progress.
‘Dark times’
Nicole reflected: “I will never forget the high risk doctor told us ‘either you terminate the pregnancy now or you continue just to watch your baby die'”.
“I went through some very dark times. We had constant pushing from the doctors for termination, and it seemed every appointment we went to there was worse and worse news, so the doctors pushed it even more.”
But Mike explained that they “chose to fight for Bella because at the end of the day, that’s a parent’s job”.
Following Bella’s successful operation, the Roman Catholic couple thanked “everyone who prayed so hard for our little girl. God heard the prayers”.
Tiny
Earlier this month, the mum of a baby girl weighing just 12 ounces at birth thanked hospital staff for saving her daughter’s life.
After Jessy Williams gave birth to twins at just 23-and-a-half-weeks’ gestation, she and her babies were rushed to a specialist intensive care unit at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital.
Sadly, her son Ezra only lived for a day, but Sky survived, and after four and a half months in hospital was allowed home.
‘Happy and loved’: ‘Safe haven’ baby adopted into new family
Anniversary of Roe v Wade repeal: ‘Life is winning in America’
Labour MP: ‘Mum showed extraordinary courage not to have me aborted’