{"id":62803,"date":"2015-04-21T17:52:31","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T21:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=62803"},"modified":"2015-04-24T14:22:48","modified_gmt":"2015-04-24T18:22:48","slug":"47-hours-with-a-prince","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/47-hours-with-a-prince\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors suggested abortion and starvation, but these parents carried their son to term"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>\u201cYour husband isn\u2019t with you?\u201d The doctor looked concerned.\u00a0 Hannah Boland had decided to go alone for her follow-up appointment.<\/p>\n<p>Only a short while before, a pregnancy had ended in a miscarriage. But this pregnancy was different. They were out of the danger zone. The baby was already 20\u00a0weeks gestation. Alison and Harry, Hannah\u2019s two toddlers, aged three and two, respectively, were going to have another sibling.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI like having the husband or partner present in these sorts of situations. We detected a problem with your baby\u2019s scan,\u201d the doctor continued. \u201cThere seems to be a problem with his brain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An information sheet was pushed in front of Hannah.<\/p>\n<p>The baby\u2019s brain had not developed, the doctor explained. The condition could not be altered. It was unlikely he would be born alive. If he survived birth, he would have a few, short, painful moments to live.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was in total shock,\u201d Hannah told LifeSiteNews, \u201cThis sort of thing happens to other people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hannah and her husband, Michael, raise their family in a semi-rural area outside Sydney, Australia. Michael is the sole breadwinner, working as a mechanic who specializes in elevators.\u00a0 Hannah is a stay-at-home mom, who was taking care of their two toddlers at the time of the diagnosis.<\/p>\n<p>This diagnosis put her faith to the test.<\/p>\n<p>The couple\u2019s main struggle was how to cope with the uncertainties that lay ahead.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"article-image left\" data-location=\"8\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-responsive alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/lifesite-cache.s3.amazonaws.com\/images\/made\/images\/news\/bolands1_250_339_55.jpg\" alt=\"Image\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Abortion was never an option for the Bolands.\u00a0 \u201cWith our first child, we went through those questions because they can do prenatal testing.\u201d\u00a0 Those tests were \u201ca waste of time,\u201d she said. \u201cWe knew that that was not something God would want us to do\u2026Who are we to say that that person is not worthy to live?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Almost every doctor they met recommended an abortion. Hannah says one doctor said at a consultation, \u201cTell me why I am here?\u00a0 I don\u2019t even know why I am here. There is no hope for your baby.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 None.\u00a0 There is a 99.9 percent chance of your baby dying right after he is born.\u00a0 It is likely that he will just gurgle a little and then die.\u00a0 I won\u2019t even be present at his birth; there is no point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The doctors also thought there was no point in giving the baby oxygen in the event that he lived after birth.\u00a0 One doctor suggested simply letting the baby starve.<\/p>\n<p>Prayers and tears were all the couple was left with.\u00a0 They loved their son and wanted what was best for him.\u00a0 They had to decide on their own what that would mean.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"img-responsive aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/lifesite-cache.s3.amazonaws.com\/images\/made\/images\/news\/bolands2_645_423_55.jpg\" alt=\"Image\" width=\"428\" height=\"281\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the end they decided to feed, love and serve him.\u00a0 The one real struggle was resuscitation.\u00a0 Was it in his best interest to bring him back? Their final decision: \u201cWe would not do anything intentionally to end Stephen\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The birth took three days.\u00a0 When Stephen was born, \u201che stunned the theater staff with his loud, healthy cry.\u00a0 It was a far cry from the gurgling, dying cry they had expected to see,\u201d Hannah recounted in a book she later published about her son.<\/p>\n<p>Their son looked healthy and beautiful.\u00a0 Tears rolled down Michael\u2019s cheek and family members trickled in and out to meet and cuddle the new baby.\u00a0 Stephen\u2019s brother and sister were excited to meet him, but too young to fully process what was going on.\u00a0 They only understood that he was very sick.<\/p>\n<p>Hours later, Stephen began to fuss, a signal that it was feeding time.\u00a0 The nurses inserted a feeding tube through Stephen\u2019s nose.\u00a0 It seemed to nourish and settle him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was feeding.\u00a0 He was well.\u00a0 I was going to be able to bring him home and take care of him!\u201d Hannah wrote.<\/p>\n<p>However, the initial signs were misleading.\u00a0 Stephen began spitting up his food and it became apparent that he was not assimilating any nutrition.\u00a0 It was only a matter of time.<\/p>\n<p>Hannah recounts being tired and frazzled, not knowing how to handle a child that was slipping away.\u00a0 Her husband showed her how.\u00a0 He gently took his son and said, \u201cWell, mate, you\u2019re still here for a reason.\u00a0 And as long as you are still here, I am going to serve you as best I can.\u201d He cradled him and swabbed his dry lips.<\/p>\n<p>It was a time to be completely selfless, which Hannah admits was difficult especially after the long labor.\u00a0 She is ashamed to recount, \u201cHere was my son dying, suffering, and once again all I could think about was how it was hard on me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During short intervals Stephen stopped breathing, but would revive again and again.\u00a0 After several hours of cradling Stephen, Michael turned to his wife. Their son was gone.\u00a0 He slipped away in the arms of his father, close to his mother.\u00a0 He had arrived at his final destination.\u00a0 In some ways, their journey had only just begun.<\/p>\n<p>This month marks the one-year anniversary of Stephen\u2019s birth.\u00a0 Hannah has written an account of his life, &#8220;47 Hours with a Prince.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to help people in the way I have been helped,\u201d she says, explaining that a Christian counselor helped her though the many months of grieving that followed the death of Stephen.\u00a0 She hopes to help those with emotional illness, noting, \u201cthe emotional side of us is just as prone to illness as any part of us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are many messages she wants to give, and one is about acceptance. \u201cWe have to look at things through God\u2019s eyes, or you are going to make decisions that you are going to regret.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s Note: This story originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/news\/47-hours-with-a-prince\">LifeSite News on July 18, 2012,<\/a> and is reprinted here with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cYour husband isn\u2019t with you?\u201d The doctor looked concerned.\u00a0 Hannah Boland had decided to go alone for her follow-up appointment. Only a short while before, a pregnancy had ended in a miscarriage. But this pregnancy was different. They were out of the danger zone. The baby was already 20\u00a0weeks gestation. Alison and Harry, Hannah\u2019s two [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":62804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Doctors suggested abortion and starvation, but these parents carried their son to term - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/47-hours-with-a-prince\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Doctors suggested abortion and starvation, but these parents carried their son to term - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cYour husband isn\u2019t with you?\u201d The doctor looked concerned.\u00a0 Hannah Boland had decided to go alone for her follow-up appointment. 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