Keep your family safe from germs and bacteria
Rory -- our special boy
The birth of a baby with special needs is often difficult to accept. For the Stirlings, the news that one of their twins had Down's Syndrome overshadowed their joy at finally becoming parents
Infertility
We were married in l988 and, after a year or two without a pregnancy, we went to the fertility clinic at the Lister Hospital in London to find out why.
My husband's sperm count turned out to be too low for a natural pregnancy. We were also told that the IVF techniques available then were very unlikely to work.
This was extremely hard for us both, as we struggled to come to terms with never having children of our own. Then a medical breakthrough in Belgium brought hope, and we underwent a new sort of IVF called Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection or ICSI - where a single sperm is injected directly into the egg. By August l993 I was pregnant with twins at last.
To test or not to test?As I was 35, I discussed the options for pre-natal testing with my consultant. Amniocentesis carries a one in a hundred risk of miscarriage - exaggerated further by a twin pregnancy. We also faced an impossible dilemma if one of the twins had a problem, so we opted out of prenatal testing. I have never regretted this decision.
Emergency deliveryI developed pre-eclampsia at 35 weeks and was admitted to hospital immediately. Within two days, I was diagnosed with a clotting disorder called HELLP syndrome. Our healthy twin boys had to be delivered immediately by emergency vaginal ventouse extraction.
Although dangerously ill, I was not particularly aware of my condition and was more concerned with the tremendous discomfort in my back. Alexander was born first and looked like a combination of my husband and my father.
Rory arrived 15 minutes later, and I remember thinking that he did not look like any members of our family, but thought no more about it. My husband Robert noticed that there were several discussions about Rory, and thought this strange, but was not particularly concerned as no member of the medical staff addressed him directly.
1 | 2 | 3 | next
printer friendly
send to a friend
Delicious
Digg
reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
Horoscopes| Message Boards | Quizzes | Newsletters | Join
iVillage Ltd is a UK company registered in England & Wales (3837269) at 80-110 New Oxford Street, London WC1 1HB
