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Maybe I Don’t Need Your Advice, Doctor

I have hopes and dreams for my daughter

Maria Rattray
Hope, Healing, and Humour
5 min readJan 16, 2025

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Keeping dreams alive for disabled children
Window ledge with an ornament that spells out, DREAM. Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

I remember when I was pregnant with my daughter and attending antenatal classes, I noted a young couple who kept to themselves, rarely joining in the fun.

I made an effort to greet them each week, but that was as far as our friendship got.

Then we bumped into each other in the hospital the day after delivery and after showing our new babies off, we got talking. She explained that she had been advised in her first trimester to terminate her pregnancy as her little girl would be ‘disabled’, a term she used.

This had come as a great shock to her and her husband as the pregnancy had progressed well, and there was no hint of anything being wrong.

She hadn’t even experienced morning sickness! Lucky girl!

Still, they discussed their options with their respective families and decided to proceed with the pregnancy.

Of course, they were hugely concerned about the outcome and subsequently lived on tenterhooks, but they would not agree to a termination.

Our daughters were born on the same day, one hour apart, each of them perfectly healthy.

All parents are relieved when their children are assessed as healthy, none more…

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Hope, Healing, and Humour
Hope, Healing, and Humour

Published in Hope, Healing, and Humour

A delightful place to spend some time, feed your soul, be inspired, and laugh a lot.

Maria Rattray
Maria Rattray

Written by Maria Rattray

Writer, author, teacher, fun-loving poet. Trying valiantly to make the world a better place. Helping you to guide the future. Find me at: https://ponmyword.com

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