Replies

None of this sounds like something that a physician would have volunteered.

Sob sisters can believe it. I don't.

I think sometimes LifeSite News tends toward sensationalism and some of their stories omit pertinent facts at times. I also think that most doctors do not want to see their patients die and are both competent and compassionate. So I’m not one to jump on the band wagon of demonizing the entire medical profession because of a few bad ones in the barrel.

However, nearly 5 years ago my niece gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Preeclampsia, a difficult and very long labor and signs of fetal distress meant a C-Section. I was there for the whole thing and was the second person to hold my darling little great niece and it was beautiful.

A few months later my niece and her husband called to tell me they were expecting again which was a big surprise to me and to them as well. Then a few weeks later they called me and asked if I was sitting down. Then they proceeded to tell me they had just come back from a sonogram and found out they were expecting triplets.

There were shocked, excited and needless to say, more than a little scared but more than anything filled with joy.

But their joy short lived when they went to their OBY (not the one that delivered their first as they had moved to another state) for her next appointment. The doctor told my niece and her husband that this pregnancy was dangerous and life threatening, that carrying triplets was risky enough but since she so recently had given birth and had a C-Section and had some complications, he told them it would be nearly impossible to carry them to term and that if she tried, she would (not might) but would likely die. He told them that she should have an abortion or a best, abort the two smaller babies so the larger one might have a chance. This doctor also told them he could not “in good conscience” continue to be their OBY if they wanted to try and go through with bringing all three babies to term – he called it “suicide” and told them they’d have to find another doctor if they didn’t “selectively reduce”.

I was with them that evening as husband and wife were crying, holding each other and trying to come to terms with what the doctor had told them earlier that day. My niece’s husband was terrified at the thought of losing his wife and raising their infant daughter all alone. They were not being “sob sisters” and they were not lying about or misunderstanding what the doctor told them.

A few days later my niece started making phone calls to OBY’s specializing in high risk pregnancies and found one who was affiliated with a large regional university hospital who said he was happy to see her and her husband and assess their situation. Long story short, while being frank in telling them there were risks, he also felt confident that with close monitoring and medications and most likely bed rest and hospitalization well ahead of a planned C-Section at 32 week, that there was no reason to think she couldn’t deliver three healthy babies. He also told them that their previous doctor quite frankly didn’t know what he was talking about and he and the small hospital he was affiliated with were probably just not equipped to handle a high risk multiple birth. He did say however that the other doc was correct in telling them to find another doctor. BTW – this was the same doc that delivered the sextuplets of a family that went on to have a reality TV show but that’s another story.

And four years ago next week, my niece gave birth to three beautiful girls, two of who are identical twins (the one to have been aborted). They were preemies at 32 weeks but big for preemies and there were no major complications. Every time I look at these three healthy, smart, very loving and active children and their “big” sister, 11 months older, I can’t imagine life without any of them and as hard and as expensive and challenging as it is raising four daughters, their parent can’t either.