Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CECILIA:
Some days I am completely convinced that we will have a healthy
baby, and then other days I think, my God, how is a child with Down
syndrome going to cope with life in our society that is so individualistic,
and how am I as a parent, or we as parents, going to cope with a child
that will always be a child, even as grown up, that frightens me more,
children will always demand a lot of time and presence from their
parents, but as grown up they will be independent, but I am not sure a
child with Down's syndrome will ever. It is these thoughts I have had
(…) At the same time I think that if anybody should have such a baby,
it should be Henrik and me, we are so confi dent persons, I think we
would deal with it very well and I am sure that such a child would bring
a lot of happiness, so you can twist it back and forth (…) I think that
independently of what happens, it is as I said very good to fi nd out and
to have these thoughts already now (Interview 1)
After the risk of chromosome abnormality is confi rmed to be false, and
after the follow-up scan, the images of the baby can be re-assessed. Also, the
baby is now bigger and has a more baby-like look:
CECILIA:
The body proportions looked better now, before (at the fi rst scan)
the head was so enormously big, it looked a bit strange, but now, it
looked like a baby and it was nicer to look at than the fi rst time, because
now you really saw the little fi ngers clearly, everything was more clear,
and then I had this feeling of being proud, how wonderful, just imagine
that this is our baby, and it looks really healthy (laughter) you could see
the brain so clearly and the heart, yes it was fascinating (Interview 2).
Here, in the second interview after the invasive test and follow-up scan,
the risk of Down syndrome has been dismissed. Cecilia talks about how the
baby looks at the follow-up scan. She can see the body parts very clearly
and she says that the baby is 'really healthy' and it is all wonderful and
fascinating. Having said this, Cecilia goes on to say that independently of the
results, it would have been fi ne. Even if the baby had Down syndrome, she
and her husband would want the baby and love it just as much, 'even if it is
not quite healthy, if you think in a scale of normality'.
Thinking of the baby as ill or disabled
Others describe how they have not being able to think about the baby as
healthy or well, even if they try to. They can only think about the baby as ill.
Mette, aged 29, with a risk score of 1:71 is one example:
METTE:
My thoughts have been mixed. In my world, the baby was ill, that's
how it was. I think I prepared myself much more for how an abortion
would be, even if I hadn't made up my mind about having an abortion
