Mum’s shock after baby born alive following abortion at 18 weeks
A mum who made the agonising decision to have an abortion was shocked when her son was born alive. WARNING: Graphic and distressing.
WARNING: Graphic and distressing.
A mum has told of her devastation after her tiny baby was born alive after an abortion at 18 weeks.
Loran Denison, 27, was pregnant with her fourth child, when a test at 15 weeks revealed he had Edwards’ syndrome, The Sun reports.
It’s a rare but very serious condition, and most babies with Edwards’ syndrome will die before or shortly after being born.
So Ms Denison and partner Scott Watson, 35, made the agonising decision to have a medical abortion after being told he was unlikely to be born alive.
She took a tablet and returned to hospital to be induced at 18 weeks and four days – but was astonished when her son was born breathing and alive.
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And while the mum doesn’t want to deter anyone from making the right choice for them, she said watching him die was “torture”.
The stay-at-home mum from Lancashire, England said she is “glad” she had a bit of time with her son but “it also made the situation much harder”.
“They told me he had typical Edwards’ Syndrome so would pass away before or just after birth. My boy had a lion heart,” Ms Denison said.
“I thought I had done the hard bit when I made the difficult decision to have an abortion, but now it feels 10 times worse.
“I just want other mums to know in case this happens to them.
‘It was like torture’
Ms Denison said she had to watch his heartbeat getting slower and “watch his life draining out of him”.
“You just want to keep your children alive. It was like torture.
She said none of the doctors thought he would be born alive and when her partner picked him up after he was born he said, ‘His heart is beating,’ and they said, ‘No way.’”
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“When I took the first tablet on the sixth they said it would stop the pregnancy, heartbeat and everything, so we expected he wouldn’t be alive when he was born,” Ms Denison said.
“They didn’t check for a heartbeat before inducing labour, and I wish they had.
“I don’t have words for how awful it was.”
Most cases of rare condition don’t survive birth
Edwards’ Syndrome is a rare condition and most babies with it don’t live to full-term, or die a couple of hours after being born, because they have an extra chromosome, number 18.
Only 13 in 100 babies with Edwards’ Syndrome who are born alive live until their first birthday.
Edwards’ Syndrome can cause a mixture of symptoms, varying in different people, including learning difficulties, heart, respiratory, kidney or gastrointestinal problems, the website says.
The level of illness can depend on how much of the extra chromosome patients have, and how many cells carry the copy, so there is full, mosaic or partial Edwards’ Syndrome.
Ms Denison said she was told her son, who she named Kiyo Bleu, had ‘typical Edwards’ Syndrome’.
Ten hours of agony for parents
After taking the tablet on April 6, Ms Denison returned to the Women and Newborn Unit at Burnley General Hospital on April 8 to induce the birth.
“We had already said our goodbyes when we went in.”
But little Kiyo Bleu Watson was born alive on April 9 at 3.50pm, weighing 150g, to the shock of his parents and doctors.
They had him blessed and christened in hospital while he was alive.
“They said his heart will stop in the next half-hour, and I kept ringing the bell to say he was still alive, and I said, ‘Do you just leave him?’ And they said, ‘Yes,’” Ms Denison said.
Though glad to have met him, the mum said it was agonising to wait 10 hours watching their newborn son fade until he died on April 10 at 2.30am.
After he died, little Kiyo Bleu went home to be with his parents and their other three children for four days.
The family spent time with him in a special cot with a cold mattress until he needed to go to a funeral parlour on April 14 ahead of his funeral.
He spent time with his big brother Rocco Watson, 6, and sisters Bunni Rose, 3, and Romee Beau, 2.
“It was awful,” Ms Denison said. “I can’t get my head around how he survived.
“I don’t even have a word for how horrible it feels. There is a person I’ve read about who has survived with Edwards’ Syndrome to 40.
“Kiyo Bleu was so strong now I wonder if he would have survived. His heartbeat was so strong you could feel it.
“If I had known he would be born alive I probably would have made a different decision.
“I thought I was doing the right thing but now I think I have done the wrong thing.
“He just looked so normal.”
This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission
