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Interview 35

Interview 35

Age at Interview: 38
Sex: Male
Background: Pregnancy ended in 2003. No. of children at time of interview: 1 + [1]. Age of other child: 3. Occupations: Father - business analyst, Mother - training and development. Marital status: married. Ethnic background: White British.

Brief outline:Father of 1 child. 2nd pregnancy: wife felt unwell throughout pregnancy. Nuchal scan at 12-weeks arranged privately, advised to have CVS - no problems detected. 20-week scan found baby had heart problems. Specialist cardiac scan confirmed baby had multiple problems in heart, stomach and spleen. Pregnancy ended by feticide and induction at 22 weeks. Post mortem confirmed multiple abnormalities. He is undecided about whether he wants another baby.

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He doesn't feel strong enough to go through another set of IVF and another pregnancy and is grateful for the child he's got.
Print No the experience we've been through has affected me as regards, do I want any more children a lot more than it's affected my wife, because I know for a fact that she would love to have another baby. And I'm still not a hundred percent sure that I'm strong enough to go through either another set of IVF and all that's involved in that, or another pregnancy, not knowing whether or not that's going to turn out alright. I don't think or I couldn't go through another termination - that's how I feel at the moment. So there's a big part of me at the moment that's says, 'we've got our little boy, we never thought we were going to him in the first place so, let's be thankful for that'. But [laughs] he's so good with other kids, it's almost, you know, if we, if that's the decision we make are we depriving him of a little brother or sister that he would love to bits? Depriving him of a playmate, I don't know, I don't know. There's a bit question mark there. There is a big question there. Because if I knew that [my wife] could get pregnant tomorrow, and that we would go through the pregnancy with no problems whatsoever then I'd say, “Yes.”

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