{"id":176643,"date":"2017-12-23T13:13:14","date_gmt":"2017-12-23T18:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=176643"},"modified":"2017-12-24T12:36:24","modified_gmt":"2017-12-24T17:36:24","slug":"australian-football-star-twins-anencephaly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/australian-football-star-twins-anencephaly\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian football star expecting twin with anencephaly: ‘BOTH babies are beautiful’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At their 11-week pregnancy scan, Australian football player Gary Rohan of the Sydney Swans and his wife Amie learned that one of their preborn identical twins has a health condition that usually leads to death within hours of birth. Anencephaly is a condition in which the brain and skull do not develop properly and it labeled as “incompatible with life.”<\/p>\n

“[We are] over the moon to share with you all that we have been blessed twice over,” Rohan wrote on Instagram<\/a>. “Sadly, one of our beautiful bubs has been diagnosed with anencephaly. […] BOTH our babies are beautiful, precious human beings, with the only thing being that sadly one’s life is destined to be cut short.”<\/p>\n

Rohan wrote that he and his wife were “constantly discussing what we should do” and in many cases of anencephaly\u00a0diagnoses, an option doctors suggest is abortion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“But for me, whatever you do to one [twin] affects the other,” Amie Rohan told news.com.au<\/a>. “Our specialist gave us all the options, but I said this is the journey I’ve been given and this is the situation I’ve been put in and I’m more than happy to carry the baby to full term.”<\/p>\n

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@amierohan_ and I are over the moon to share with you all that we have been blessed twice over ????\u2764\ufe0f Sadly, one of our beautiful bubs has been diagnosed with anencephaly. Anencephaly is a condition where part of the brain, skull and scalp never develops. Our brain is very sensitive, so to live our brain must have cushion and protection. Since our brain tells our heart to beat, our lungs to breath, our legs to move and so on, these babies live from a few moments to a few hours after birth. Babies born with anencephaly are not compatible with life. Ames and I have known about this since our 11 week scan, and since knowing, we’ve been constantly discussing what we should do, how we should tell people and if we should tell people at all. We come to the decision that either way, BOTH our babies are beautiful, precious human beings, with the only thing being that sadly ones life is destined to be cut short. There are going to be some really difficult days ahead but also many happy ones, and we want to share each and every one of those moments with you all. Talking about our situation with people has been our therapy, letting our emotions out has been the best thing for us personally. We would love for anyone who has been affected by anencephaly themselves or know of others affected by anencephaly to please contact us. Don’t be afraid to talk to us about it. That’s what we want, we want people to ask questions, we want to talk about it with others. We still need questions answered as much as everyone else. And at the end of the day, we will always be parents to twins, our journey has just been written a little differently to others. All our love Gaz & Ames xx<\/a><\/p>\n

A post shared by GaryRohan16<\/a> (@garyrohan16) on