Writer: ‘I half-hoped that I might miscarry’
June 6th, 2008In a first-person piece in the [UK] Guardian about her son with Down syndrome, writer Annie Rey describes her journey from terror to acceptance of her son, Paddy.
Rey had a long-held fear of people with disabilities, and fell deep into despair when Paddy was diagnosed with DS at birth. She entertained fantasies about giving baby Paddy up for adoption and fleeing to New Zealand, and was wary of parents of other children with DS who said they were happy. (They seemed to her “sandal-wearing types who loved humanity.”)
Over time, Rey came to realize that “none of us knows what the future holds, and being physically sound to begin with isn’t the only thing that matters.” Paddy’s speech therapist tells her it’s reasonable to expect that her son will eventually be able to drive, work and hold down a relationship — things she had not previously realized were possible.
Paddy is now two “and we adore him,” Rey writes. He’s a person in his own right who dances, sings, learns and delights his family.
Knowing the fear I had of disability, and how close I came to having amniocentesis, it makes my blood run cold to think that if I had had the test and miscarried, we might now be childless. More importantly, we would not have Paddy. And I truly believe that if my precious boy did not exist, our world, and probably the world at large, would be a poorer place.
This entry was posted
on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 4:55 am and is filed under Down syndrome, NOT2BEMISSED, abortion, families, first-person, genetics, parents, personal stories, prenatal diagnosis.
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