{"id":208032,"date":"2019-08-05T12:20:14","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T17:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=208032"},"modified":"2019-08-05T13:54:57","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T18:54:57","slug":"doctor-attempted-guilt-parents-aborting-daughter-shes-blessing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doctor-attempted-guilt-parents-aborting-daughter-shes-blessing\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors made them feel guilty for not aborting baby Ivy. They had no idea how amazing she’d be."},"content":{"rendered":"
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At 19 weeks gestation, Vanessa McLeod learned that there was something not right with her preborn daughter. Terrified the doctors would tell her that her baby was going to die, she was relieved to learn that her daughter was missing her arms and hands but was otherwise healthy. However, the doctors suggested that she and her husband abort their daughter, and McLeod began to feel guilty for wanting to keep her baby.<\/p>\n

“My ultimate fear […] was losing her,” said McLeod in an essay for Love What Matters<\/a>. “I was worried that the pregnancy wasn’t viable. That there was something she wouldn’t be able to survive. That I would give birth and lose her days, hours, or minutes after meeting her.”<\/p>\n

With her husband away for work, McLeod sat with her parents and midwife listening to what the scans had revealed about her daughter. There were the possibilities of a cleft lip and a heart problem, and one femur was curved and shorter than the other. All news that left McLeod with hope. But then came the news that her baby girl was missing both forearms and hands.<\/p>\n

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Ivy Jane \u2764\ufe0f my littlest darling, don\u2019t ever think you\u2019re anything less than perfect \u2764\ufe0f ?: the amazing @melissahopfnerphotography<\/a><\/p>\n

A post shared by Vanessa McLeod<\/a> (@vanessamcleod_) on