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Healthy Pregnancy After a Chromosomal Defect Pregnancy

In June my husband and I discovered that I am pregnant with our 3rd child. Although this pregnancy was very much a surprise( I was on the pill) we were wanting more children and excited to be blessed. Within the past few weeks we have discovered that the baby has severe birth defects and a terminal chromosomal defect. As a result she most likely will not make it to term and should she make it would not survive very long and will be in enormous pain. After much horribly painful discussion we have decided to terminate the pregnancy. I am Catholic and this was an incredibly painful difficult decision and do not wish to read comments questioning or condemning our decision.

My question is has anyone had a chromosomal disorder pregnancy and then gotten pregnant again? Was the baby born after the complications healthy? Were you told you were at risk for recurrance of the abnormality? We want more children but would not want another baby to suffer because of our wants.

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So What Happened?™

I wanted to thank everyone who responded. The heartfelt words of condolence were extremely comforting at this time. My husband and I after much discussion with genetics counselors, perinatal specialists and others in the field decided to do an amniocentisis in order to do chromosonal testing. However, when I went in on September 4th for my appointment the prescreen ultrasound showed that our precious little girl had already been called home. We were extremely grateful that God had ended her pain and helped us to not have to make such a difficult decision. We are scheduled for a D&C, because my body has not spontaneously terminated on its own, and are planning to do testing on the placenta once all is done. We are hoping to try again in a year or so, but as I said before if it is not in God's plan for us to have more than we are thrilled, delighted, and more grateful than ever for our two gorgeous daughters.

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If you haven't terminated the pregnancy yet, I would highly recommend reading the book "The attonment child" by Francine Rivers.. Even if you have already, I would HIGHLY suggest reading this book. It will help you.

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I am the proud grandmother/mother of a 15 year, my daughter had several tests while she was pregnant and all of them came back with a chromosome count that was wrong. They knew she would not be a healthy child. My daughter (her mom) was 16 at the the time and refuse to terminate the preganancy. At the end she had a normal 6 lb baby girl.
Since she was so young I ended up raising her.

My daughter has two other healthy daughters.

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J.,
The only way to get answers to those questions is to know exactly what type of chromosome anomaly your child has. If it is something like trisomy 13 or trisomy 18 than the condition is due to an extra chromosome and the chnace to have another child with the same problem is generally quoted as 1% or your age related risk, whichever is higher. Other chromosome anomalies can be caused by different mechanisms and your recurrence risk could be different. The best thing for you would be to ask your Dr for a referral for genetic counseling. We are mastered trained specialists in this are and would be able to give you all the information you would need concerning the cause of the current pregnancy and risks to future pregnancies.
Good luck!

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Hi J.,

I just wanted to write as someone who has been there. In 2000, I had a healthy baby boy. In 2001, I found out I was pregnant and was totally expecting another healthy baby. However, something had gone wrong with the baby. The doctors told me that the baby had a chromosomal abnormality and offered me the same information that you were given. To make a long story short, I lost the baby mid-term. It was incredibly painful emotionally. Thankfully, I had friends, family and faith in a loving God to cling to. BUT here is the exciting news for you!!! In 2003, I got pregnant again. I was very closely monitored throughout the pregnancy, which is exactly what I needed for reassurance. I was 36 at the time I gave birth to my second completely healthy son! I was older than you so you do have youth on your side. :-) I have suspicions about what chromosomal disorder my second baby had but I wouldn't let them do testing before she/he died and they couldn't get any "viable" cells to do testing after. So, be encouraged. What happened once doesn't have to happen again. If it helps, educate yourself. Do some genetic counseling into whatever chromosomal abnormality your baby had. Is it reoccurring or just an accident? Know that your future pregnancies will be classified as "high risk" and you will be watched very closely. (That actually brought me comfort.)

God is ultimately in charge. We like to think that we make the babies but that is all His work, His plans, His timing, His creation! That brought me peace as well. God is in charge so I don't have to be.

Sending you a cyber hug,

K.

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I will be praying for you and your family. I did not have a chromosomal defect, but I did have a baby boy with a very unusual fatal birth defect. He had anencephaly. He had a brain stem, that gave us a heart beat for months. His brain did not form. Anencephaly occurs within the first 10 days of pregnancy. I had to also make the decision to terminate or carry full term and deliver a baby that had no chance of making it. I decided to terminate. My delivery was very difficult. I could not have gotten through it without my husband and mom and dad close by. I could feel the prayers of all of my family and friends that day.
After our delivery and some time to grieve, we consulted a genetics counselor. Although, our defect was not genetic. If your chromosome defect is due to not all the cells fitting together and lining up in early development, then you should have the same odds of a healthy baby as everyone else. If they do genetic testing and find that it is due to genetics, then they can tell you the odds of a healthy pregnancy in the future. This is the part of pregnancy that most do not think about. A healthy baby is truly a miracle. In early development, their are so so many crucial biological steps that must fit together to produce a healthy baby. I did have a healthy baby girl a year and a half after loosing our first child. She is now 6. I view her as a miracle on a daily basis. I will continue to pray for you and your family. Feel free to e-mail me if you need someone to talk to. Take care of yourself and allow people to help you during this time. You are loved and love helps heal our pain. Take care.

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I terminated a pregnancy when I was in high school, too young and unwilling to deal with being a mom. It was the smartest decision I ever made and I have never had regrets. Sometimes we make decisions that might be unpopular or not "politically correct"- but they are OUR own decisions- so don't let ANYONE beat you up about this. It is hard enough being pregnant, do what you need to do. That said, I went on to have a healthy son 18 years later,2 years later a miscarriage at about 12 weeks, a year later a healthy daughter and then 2 years later another healthy daughter who was a twin - but the twin miscarried. So - anything can happen. I truly believe you are doing the right thing, better to save everyone the tragedy of your baby being born only to die shortly thereafter- it is hard enough on parents, even harder for kids to understand. And to anyone who asks-you can say the baby wasn't viable and miscarried and beyond that it is none of their business. No need to explain. Good luck and best wishes.

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J., I am posting the following message on behalf of one of my dearest friends. My best wishes to you and your family. K.

To mom:

Hello, my name is Tara and I had a similar experience in 2006. Although we were blessed to not have any clue that our daughter was severely ill until she came out, she did end up dying at the age of 5 months 5 days.
My daughter Reese was born after having a healthy boy in 2004. She had complications that involved her lymphatic system. After a long fight in the NICU I decided I really needed to know exactly what was wrong with her. She has been written up in a medical journal as we still cannot find an exact case like herself. Most babies with her condition die once they are out in the real world and most don’t opt for an autopsy as they would call the babies condition hydropic (meaning full of fluid). My daughter had a different mission in her short life. To make a long story short my husband and I also received news that she had Noonan’s syndrome. Chromosomal defect as well….genetic disorder. What knew we wanted more kids but we also knew we should take it a step further and get tested ourselves to make sure we weren’t carriers. After a miserable
3 weeks of waiting for the results they came back negative. It was considered a spontaneous mutation and that the chance of us having another sick baby was the same as any other. My advice to you is to consider genetic testing so you can set your mind at ease. If my husband and were to have found out one of us were carriers, we would have stopped having children. We just couldn’t possibly go through a similar experience.

We have had a healthy boy since then and I am expecting a baby girl in Dec.

I hope this helps. I am saying prayers for you and your family. To me this is the hardest thing that anyone has to go through and my heart goes out to you tremendously.

Thank You,

Tara

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I know you asked for advice, but may I give my sympathy and prayers, instead? I am so sorry for what you are going through and for having to make such difficult choices. Remember, God knows what you're going through and He has Understanding for every situation in our lives, especially those which seem darkest to us. May God give you His Peace and Comfort to handle this sorrowful time. I don't have any any advice. All I can offer is my Love and Prayers to our Merciful God that you and your family's hearts will be healed. I thank God for your 12 year old and 15 month old daughters, and for your loving husband and family. I pray that God will show you the blessings of having gone through this, even though we on Earth can't always see them. I know how much you Love and Want this Precious Little Girl and that she will always be in your heart and prayers. I pray that this Little Child's Life and Memory will be able to bless someone else eventually. You may be able to use your experience to help someone else get through a difficult time one day.

In Christ's Precious Name I ask all of this for you. Amen.

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I am just wanting to say that my heart goes out to you and God Bless you. I know that was a very difficult decision and you made the right decision for you and your family and it is no ones business to comment or tell you anything. I know how difficult that was for you. I did have a friend that this happened to many years ago and she did go on to have other children and I pray this will happen for you and your husband as well. I feel it will as you are strong but remember don't obcsess with getting pregnant and it will happen. Good Luck to you.

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J.,

I am so sorry that you and your family are having to deal with such issues. You can still have a healthy baby following a chromosonal abnormality pregnancy. Talk with your dr and possibly even talk with a genetisist because each Chromo. abnormality has it's own percentage.

I will lift you up in prayer because I can't imagine having to make such decisions---hugs to you all.

D.

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