A mother who was told her baby’s illness would be incompatible with life has shared how she was pressured to have an abortion, but refused.
When Chloe Conlin was 20 weeks’ pregnant, doctors told her that her unborn daughter would be born with half a heart.
She revealed that medics advised her to have an abortion more than ten times, but she refused, and gave birth to baby Miyah in October 2018.
‘Incompatible with life’
Chloe said: “When I was pregnant they told me to have an abortion over 10 times because they said she wouldn’t be compatible with life, it would be a real struggle and she probably wouldn’t live until her first birthday”.
Miyah had open heart surgery on Christmas Eve last year, and despite doctors’ warnings that she would not survive, she celebrated her first birthday, and will now have her first Christmas at home.
Chloe said that her daughter had not had any major hospital admissions since her surgery last year, and has been doing “really well”.
First steps
She said: “She’s doing really well at the moment, she’s started walking.
“They told me she wouldn’t be reaching her milestones. She took her first steps about three weeks ago. She’s running around now.
“She says ‘Mum’ and ‘Dad’ and she shakes her head, ‘No’, she says ‘Ta’. She’s learning a lot more, she’s acknowledging a lot more as well.”
She added it will be “amazing to celebrate Christmas at home” after last year’s ordeal.