Beauty in the solidarity of shared experiences

We are really at a different place – in the world of helping families with a prenatal diagnosis – than we were 10 years ago. The services that have sprung up in response to the very specific needs of parents, such as perinatal hospice, bereavement and celebration of life photography, even songwriters  are thriving. It will always be scary and heartbreakingly awful to find out that your baby has life-threatening defects. But thanks to the internet, and the solidarity of shared experience, more parents will know that the moments leading up to loss can be filled with raw sweetness and a beauty that only comes from choosing to welcome life into the world, even a very brief one.

And so, the Davis family, who graciously share their too-few moments with baby Jacob in this video, accept the time they have and fill it with tenderness and tears. Jacob had been diagnosed with Pallister-Killian syndrome, which is not typically life-threatening (see Simon’s story). But Jacob was also diagnosed with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia, complicating  his prognosis. He was not expected to be with them for long.

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