Interview Section : Healthtalkonline

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The baby and the diagnosis :
Feelings about the pregnancy
Early scans and blood tests
Diagnostic tests - amnio and CVS
The 18-20 week scan and further tests
Understanding the baby's diagnosis

Deciding to end the pregnancy :
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Ending the pregnancy for the baby's sake
Ending the pregnancy for family & personal reasons
Finding out how the pregnancy will end
The impact of the decision

Ending the pregnancy :
Signing the consent form
Ending the pregnancy surgically
Ending the pregnancy by induction
Going through labour and birth
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Treatment, care and communication

Losing the baby :
Leaving hospital and going home
Deciding whether to have a post-mortem
Saying goodbye to the baby - sevices & funerals
Coping with bereavement - women's experiences
Coping with bereavement - men's experiences

The effects of ending a pregnancy :
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Support groups
Deciding whether to have another baby
Men's ideas about their role in ending a pregnancy

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Ending a pregnancy for fetal abnormality

People's stories

3-4 years since pregnancy ended

Interview 07

Interview 07

Age at Interview: 38
Sex: Female
Background: Pregnancy ended in 2002. No of children 3 + [1]. Ages of other children at interview: 7, 3 and 9 months. Occupation: Mother - mother, formerly TEFL teacher, Father: IT consultant. Marital status: married. Ethnic background: White British.

Brief outline:Her 3rd pregnancy: 20-week scan detected anomalies - baby's kidneys and stomach couldn't be seen. Specialist scan revealed baby had multiple abnormalities; parents agreed to amniocentesis which confirmed baby's problems were not inherited. Pregnancy ended at 22 weeks by induction. She has since had another baby.

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Describes how difficult it was to decide whether to have another baby because she felt so worried about the same things happening again.
Print The decision to have another baby after losing one, was very, very difficult. And even when we were losing our baby we, I was already asking questions, “Will this happen again? Is this going to be, you know can I have more children or will I be running the risk of,” so even before we'd had the termination already asking the questions. And pregnancy is a worrying time anyway, you worry all the way through 'is everything going to be alright'? After you've had an experience like that, its [laughs] even more worrying. And its probably the worst thing you can do is worry because the last thing you want is blood pressure but you can't help it. But they told me that if I was going to have more children they'd give me early scans to check that everything was all right before I got to the 20 weeks, its up to week 16 (see 'Information 'section) I think you can have a termination without having to go through labour, which is obviously distressing to go through labour and actually give birth - or rather more than having an operation. But they promised me that they would do early scans before I got to that point.

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