Interview 07- Ending a pregnancy for fetal abnormality

Age at interview: 38

Brief Outline:

Her 3rd pregnancy's 20-week scan detected anomalies - baby's kidneys and stomach couldn't be seen. Specialist scan revealed baby had multiple abnormalities; parents agreed to amniocentesis which confirmed baby's problems were not inherited. Pregnancy ended at 22 weeks by induction. She has since had another baby.

Background:

Pregnancy ended in 2002. No of children - 3 + [1]. Ages of other children at interview - 7, 3 and 9 months. Occupation - Mother - mother, formerly TEFL teacher, Father - IT consultant. Marital status - married. Ethnic background - White British.

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After making the decision to end the pregnancy she did not welcome the extra questioning she received from the hospital doctor.

 And I then had the job as I say of convincing the consultant at the local hospital that I'd made an informed decision about terminating the pregnancy. And I don't know if they do this for everybody but he questioned and questioned and questioned whether I understood the diagnoses, the prognoses. 

 

And he kept saying things like you know, “You do realise scanning machines aren't crystal balls they, people make mistakes looking into them.” And when you're in a situation like that you want to hang on to any grain of hope there is, and I thought now is he telling me everything's going to be alright and they've made a mistake? 

 

Having got to the point of having made that decision sort of any grain of hope you hold on to it and you think well maybe he's telling me that they've made a mistake, maybe everything will be all right and - so I sort of stayed with my feet on the ground, and tried to explain that I understood what I'd been told at the, at the big hospital and from what they'd said there wasn't any hope and that I wanted to terminate now because I thought it would be much more distressing losing a baby at full-term.

 

I'm pretty sure they gave me a tablet after that appointment to start softening the cervix, once I'd convinced him and signed the pieces of paper that was it.