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WARNING: Be aware that the following information describes various procedures that some readers may find disturbing. You may choose not to read all or parts of this section. |
How the pregnancy is terminated
After taking everything into consideration, some parents make the heartbreaking decision to discontinue the pregnancy. It may be that the abnormality seems unrealistic to cope with or involves the child being severely disabled. Perhaps the condition is life-threatening and will inevitably lead to the
baby dying during the pregnancy or
soon after birth. For a few parents, any degree of abnormality is a deciding factor to choose this option.
Suddenly being face with the prospect of terminating your pregnancy is an overwhelming and distressing situation. The act of going ahead with the procedure is an emotionally painful experience that can feel very scary, filled with doubts and mixed emotions.
It is important that you have adequate time between your counselling and actually discontinuing the pregnancy, so you do not feel rushed or pressured into taking this course of action. Your emotional readiness far outweighs any medical reasons to perform the termination 'earlier rather than later', because of health issues or technicalities surrounding the delaying of the procedure. At the end of the day, caregivers are able to walk away, parents in this situation are not - they have to live with the decisions they make.
How the pregnancy is terminated
Once the decision is made to discontinue the pregnancy, how this is done will depend on how far advanced the pregnancy is and your own personal preferences. Your caregiver and counsellors will discuss all your options with you, hopefully allowing you time to fully consider how you would prefer the termination handled.