A Beautiful Choice

 

Famous British Olympian rejects doctors’ advice to

abort two of her triplets, all three babies doing well at 28 weeks

By Dave Andrusko

Jaime Halsey, pictured with the expectant triplets new car seats

Jaime Halsey, Team Great Britain’s first female trampolinist at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and her rugby playing husband Steve Halsey, already were the parents of a little girl, Flo, when the two-year-old asked for a sister. Jaime, who’d married Steve in 2009, became pregnant again in 2014.
However when a scan at 12 weeks revealed that Jaime was carrying triplets, she was immediately referred to a specialist. The couple was told that one of the babies was 25% smaller than her siblings. According to the Daily Mail, Jaime said doctors advised her to “reduce” (abort) two of the babies to reduce the strain on her body.

Her initial emotional reaction was unambiguous: “I can’t do that [abort], I will keep them all and carry on with the pregnancy whatever,’” she told Gemma Mullin. “Steve was much more logical wanting to know what the risks were to me but collectively we made the decision we would give the three babies the best opportunity we possibly could to come into the world.”

Jaime, who led her team in the Beijing Games in 2008, added, “Other people have triplets and I wasn’t prepared to abort two healthy babies just to make life easier.”

And there was also the advantage of already having Flo. “If this was my first pregnancy I would be terrified, but seeing how Flo is makes me confident we can do this,” she told Mullin.
Halsey is now approximately 28 weeks along and as her babies have grown, her “panic” has vanished. Now, she said, “we can be excited about our big family and noisy house.”
In the interview, Halsey said both that “I am determined to make this happen” and that “I could not live with myself if I sacrificed two of them – to save one.”

Steve Halsey told Mullin that as of the last scan, all three babies are growing well. “The one twin remains smaller but all three are extremely active which is good news,” he said. “We also had the chances to see the faces of our three little girls on a 3D scan which was really exciting.”
Mr. Halsey added, “We never thought about terminating two of the babies for a second, we want to bring all three of them into our happy family.”

Source: NRLC News