Baby Noah Scott's funeral was this weekend. He was 4 lbs., and he was 17 inches long when he was born two months early. I spoke with his aunt tonight, and she explained a little more about what happened. I guess that Noah had a fully functional brain stem, which allowed his heart to beat and his limbs to move - even if only voluntarily - so they did not suspect problems. However, his brain never developed. Results of the partial autopsy, and chromosomal and other genetic testing haven't come in yet. Doctors think it was just one of those "fluke" things...but right now it isn't feeling like a "fluke" - that word somehow trivializes it, sounds too flip and fleeting. The family's pain will continue for a long time, maybe forever.
An interesting note to this all: Because K was to deliver at a Catholic hospital, they initally refused to do a c-section to take the baby because, hospital officials explained, there wasn't immediate danger to the baby. To remove the baby at that point, they said, would have been considered a late-term abortion. They eventually changed their minds when it was determined that the amniotic fluid was low and that inducing labor and delivering naturally would put too much stress on the baby and be a potential danger to baby (oh, and mom, too, in case anyone cares). So they gave in and let her have the c-section. K and her family were ready to go to a different, nondenominational hospital, and pay out of their own pocket rather than force K to wait another two months to have a baby that everyone knew had no chance for survival past an hour or so. I have my own private views on a woman's right to choose, but this had nothing to do with an unwed teenaged girl trying to use abortion as birth control. This was a mother, trying to cope with the inevitable death of her unborn baby, to deal with her family's loss, and to come to terms with a horrible situation no one should have to go through. And then the church-affiliated hospital threw the word abortion in there, only adding to her pain.
I don't see anything holy or reverent or Godly in that. Not one thing. Not one bit.
An interesting note to this all: Because K was to deliver at a Catholic hospital, they initally refused to do a c-section to take the baby because, hospital officials explained, there wasn't immediate danger to the baby. To remove the baby at that point, they said, would have been considered a late-term abortion. They eventually changed their minds when it was determined that the amniotic fluid was low and that inducing labor and delivering naturally would put too much stress on the baby and be a potential danger to baby (oh, and mom, too, in case anyone cares). So they gave in and let her have the c-section. K and her family were ready to go to a different, nondenominational hospital, and pay out of their own pocket rather than force K to wait another two months to have a baby that everyone knew had no chance for survival past an hour or so. I have my own private views on a woman's right to choose, but this had nothing to do with an unwed teenaged girl trying to use abortion as birth control. This was a mother, trying to cope with the inevitable death of her unborn baby, to deal with her family's loss, and to come to terms with a horrible situation no one should have to go through. And then the church-affiliated hospital threw the word abortion in there, only adding to her pain.
I don't see anything holy or reverent or Godly in that. Not one thing. Not one bit.
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