Interview 19  

Interview 19

Age at Interview: 45
Sex: Male
Background: Interview with father. Pregnancies ended in 2002 and 2003. No. of children at time of interview: 2 + [2]. Ages of other children: 3, 6 months. Occupation: Father - company director, Mother - NHS manager. Marital status: married. Ethnic background: White

Brief outline:His wife's 2nd pregnancy: 20-week scan detected neural tube defect. Specialist scan confirmed encephalocoele. Pregnancy ended at 23 weeks by feticide and induction. Post mortem identified Walker-Warburg syndrome - a genetic abnormality. 3rd pregnancy: nuchal scan revealed baby had anomalies, and by 19 weeks scan showed hydrocephalus. Pregnancy ended at 20 weeks by induction. Walker-Warburg syndrome identified at post mortem. Both parents (see EAP05) carriers of recessive gene. 4th child born in 2004.


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Describes feeling very anxious about the possibility of going through another pregnancy.

 



Yes, it does, it makes it more intense, because I think you live the fears, you live the anxieties in a very strong way, yeah, in the same way as I think my wife would have done. You're sort of very every day into that, and it's very difficult to stay cheerful when there's potentially some very gloomy news on the horizon. And so, yeah, it's a very, very intense time. I mean unbelievably my wife is talking about having another child. You know, well, you can probably tell just, I mean I'm exhausted by that thought. I mean, you know, we have a child that is healthy, a son, two children that didn't make it, and another child that is healthy. 

The last four years has I think really used a lot of energy, emotionally and physically, more physically from my wife's point of view, because being pregnant that many times in that short space of time must be just exhausting, let alone the emotional devastation that is exhausting as well. So to put yourself in that position again. I think is potentially very dangerous. Not because it, I mean it might work, we might have a very healthy child, but if it doesn't, it's jolly tough. 

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