A former Olympic gymnast who is expecting triplets has refused to follow doctors’ advice to abort two of her babies.
Jaime Halsey was told that there is only a 50 per cent chance that all three of the babies will survive.
Despite doctors advising her to ‘terminate’ two of the babies, because of risks to her own health, she is determined to bring all three baby girls into the world to join her “happy family”.
Doctors’ advice
Halsey, who was Team GB’s first female trampolinist at the 2000 Olympic Games, already has one daughter with her husband Steve and is expecting identical twins and a non-identical triplet.
At her twelve week scan doctors told her that “one of the twins is 25 per cent smaller than the other and there’s a massive risk of further growth restrictions”.
They also said that the mum risks putting her own body under strain to keep the babies healthy so advised that she abort the twins, keeping the other baby.
I won’t abort
Halsey said: “My initial emotional reaction was ‘I can’t do that, I will keep them all and carry on with the pregnancy whatever’.”
The couple made the decision that they would “give the three babies the best opportunity we possibly could to come into the world”.
“Other people have triplets”, Halsey added, “I wasn’t prepared to abort two healthy babies just to make life easier”.
Determination
She said: “I am determined to make this happen. I could not live with myself if I sacrificed two of them – to save one.”
The last scan showed that “all three babies are growing well” and that “all three are extremely active”, Halsey adds.
In 2013 a mother of quadruplets, who resisted pressure to abort two of her children, celebrated all four babies’ first birthday.
Love
Emma Robbins, 31, was repeatedly told to terminate two of her children to increase the chances of the other two babies surviving.
But she said she felt an “overwhelming sense of love” rush through her, and decided to go through with the pregnancies.
