{"id":200871,"date":"2019-04-24T06:14:22","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T11:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=200871"},"modified":"2019-04-23T14:14:34","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T19:14:34","slug":"elouise-healthy-prenatal-spina-bifida-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/elouise-healthy-prenatal-spina-bifida-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Elouise is healthy after parents chose prenatal surgery for spina bifida, not abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When doctors told 26-year-old mental health nurse Bethan Simpson after her 20-week ultrasound that her daughter Eloise had spina bifida — a condition in which the area around the developing spinal cord fails to properly close — they recommended abortion. But Simpson refused. “I couldn’t justify terminating a child I could feel kicking,” she said. Bethan and husband Kieron opted for prenatal surgery instead, which they called a “no-brainer.” The surgery has only been recently introduced to the United Kingdom, and has been done successfully there a handful of times. The BBC reports<\/a> that Simpson is thought to be the fourth mother to undergo the surgery in the UK. The surgery has been done many times successfully in the United States and in Belgium.<\/p>\n

According to<\/a> the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the hours-long surgery is typically done between 19 and 25 weeks, and will likely require the mother to remain on bedrest after the surgery for as long as possible. If labor does not begin early, CHOP states that mothers will deliver by planned C-section at 37 weeks.<\/p>\n