Right Choice

 

Mother ignores advice to abort, Alfie now healthy baby

By Dave Andrusko

“Miracle” boy, Alfie, was born after doctors at Good Hope Hospital advised his mother, Rachel Collins, to have an abortion.

Stories of mothers who refuse to listen to those who counsel abortion are among our readers’ favorite stories. And why not? This takes unflinching courage and often a willingness to stand up to medical authorities who paint the grimmest of grim pictures.
Such was the case with Rachel Collins who defied the odds to deliver her son Alfie after doctors at Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield, England, advised her to “terminate.”
It all began, according to a story in the Sutton Coldfield Observer, last year when her water broke. She was 20 weeks pregnant.

Collins told reporter Helen Machin that she was told her baby’s chances of survival were less than 10%.
“The doctor said ‘this baby will die, the best thing you can do is terminate it,’” she said. “But we already had a name for our baby and I was devastated.”
Collins added, “I could feel my baby moving, he was alive, how could I get rid of him?”
Adding to her urgency was that “We had suffered an ectopic pregnancy in February and the thought of losing two babies in one year was devastating. There was no way I was terminating my baby, I thought if he’s not meant to be, then I will miscarry – but I knew that I had to try.”
Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham agreed to take Rachel on as a patient. “They told me it was going to be tough, that he might have a squashed face or a club foot,” Collins said, “but they said they would give him a chance.”

Though it seemed to Collins as if she was in the hospital more than she was at home, miraculously Alfie was not born until October 21—at 30 weeks.
“Rachel lost a lot of blood as she was also suffering from placental abruption, and medical staff had just minutes to deliver Alfie and stop her blood loss,” Machin writes. Added Collins, “Heartlands Hospital staff were brilliant.”

Alfie “crashed” shortly after birth and had to be resuscitated. He weighed 3lb 7oz and went down to 2lb 20z.
“He was in critical care for two weeks and special care for two and a half weeks, but was finally allowed home,” Collins said. “But just a week later he developed pneumonia and was in Burton Hospital for two weeks.”

Collins said she logged each detail into a special journal that she will give her son later “so he knows how much we wanted him.”

Alfie “is a little miracle. It was a nightmare pregnancy, but every day he was hanging on was a blessing. He is now 6lb 14oz and has no health problems.”

Source: NRLC News