The Daily Mail is reporting on the story of Rachel Collins, 30, who was 20 weeks pregnant when she diagnosed with oligohydramnios, a condition in which there is too little amniotic fluid. Doctors said her baby had only a 10 percent chance of survival and would probably only live another two weeks. Even if he did survive, he would be born without kidneys and would have no lung function. They recommended terminating the pregnancy.
"The doctor didn’t mince his words, he said: 'This baby will die, the best thing you can do is terminate it'," Collins told the Mail. "We already had a name for our baby, I was devastated."
She refused to give up hope and decided to go ahead with the pregnancy, even though she had just endured an ectopic pregnancy weeks before conceiving Alfie.
"I could feel my baby was alive, he was moving, how could I get rid of him?" she said. "There was no way I was terminating my baby, I thought if he’s not meant to be , I will miscarry - but I knew I had to try."
When she found out she was pregnant, she began to keep a daily diary, not realizing that it would become a journal documenting the most epic struggle of her life - to bring her baby boy into the world. It is filled with poignant glimpses into the terror and triumph of all the ups and downs she experienced as the months passed.
"All I can do now is cry," she writes about the moment she was told the bad news at the hospital. "We are moved to a side room, my blood pressure is taken and again we are joined by the same cold-faced midwife - she is looking at me in sympathy."
She adds: "I wanted a second opinion - something in my heart was telling me we could do this."
A week later, when she found a new doctor, she wrote: "Our new consultant is amazing and every fine detail of you is checked down to the fine vessels in your brain. She never mentioned termination and supported our choice to fight for you."
She goes on to say: "I’m going to have steroid injections to bring your lung development on - its minor really, I would do anything for you."
Two months later, she is brought to the hospital to deliver her son at 30 weeks into the pregnancy.
"They wanted me to have a general anesthetic, but I insisted on a spinal block as I couldn’t bear the thought of coming round and not knowing what had happened to Alfie," she told the Mail.
It was a good choice because her precious little boy "came out screaming," she said. "He defied them all."
In her diary, she wrote: " . . . (Y)ou are born, my beautiful boy at 3.48am - and you are breathing - I cry tears of joy, I have never been this happy in my life."
Alfie was born healthy, with both kidneys and a full set of lungs. He is now six pounds, 14 ounces and has no health problems.
Collins is planning to give her diary to Alfie one day so that he will know just how much his mother wanted him.
"When Alfie is older I shall give it to him, it will be a testament to how much we wanted him and how hard we fought to bring him into the world."
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