Tell me why

Six years ago I went to the hospital for an ultrasound. I had recently suffered a second trimester miscarriage and needed to know that the Rainbow Baby that I was carrying was alive.

She was.

But with fluid separating her skin from her body – a condition called “diffuse fetal hydrops” – and with heart holes, the doctor told me that she had a zero percent chance of survival.

Let’s hold that a moment: zero percent.

He said she had a zero percent chance. He said that I should have an amniocentesis, not for her as she had no chance of surviving, but to know what was going on so that we would be prepared for a similar situation should it happen with a future pregnancy.

Gulp. Zero percent.

So I did. I went back in the hospital with my husband by my side, and had the amnio, which ultimately revealed the presence of an extra chromosome. Down syndrome. By the time our baby was born, her diffuse fetal hydrops had “miraculously” resolved itself, as had her heart holes. Moxie Eleanor Xuan Mai was born with no health issues whatsoever.

Tell me why now. Tell me why it’s OK for the doctor to give a sentence like “zero percent.”

Tell me why he can get away with this, when if I had believed him and followed through on his recommendation to terminate her life, I would have ended the life of a perfectly healthy child – not that there is anything wrong with a child being born unhealthy. It’s simply that by his own reasoning – health – he was completely, utterly and profoundly wrong.

Tell me why doctors can say “zero percent” and not be held accountable.

Tell me how many other babies are aborted based on a doctor saying “zero percent.”

- See more at: http://www.scarymommy.com/they-told-me-my-daughter-had-a-zero-percent-chance-of-survival/#sthash.d70N00hc.dpuf