Baby born without Down syndrome, but Mom adds “we would love our child regardless of the disability”

By Dave Andrusko

Parents Jordan and Jonathan Squires with their son Jay

(Image: Mercury Press & Media)

Jordan Squires and her husband Johnathan say they “could now never imagine life” without their son Jay, who will turn two in February, but there would be no little boy if they had followed what they say were doctors’ urging them to abort their child.

Why were doctors so insistent she immediately consider abortion at her 12 week scan? Because, they said, “the baby she was carrying was ‘highly likely’ to have Down’s Syndrome due to the large amount of fluid on the back of his neck,” according to The Mirror’s Becca Husselbee & Chris Kitching.

Infuriated, the couple refused even to have an amniocentesis test (which increases the chance of a miscarriage), let alone to abort.

Given how adamant the doctors were, the couple was left in “complete shock” when Jay was born weighing 9lbs, 2oz and without Down syndrome.

The couple was furious for many reasons. For one thing, Jordan and Johnathan had been devastated by a previous miscarriage. For another, Squires said, “There was no way I was going to do that, we had waited so long for this baby and we would love our child regardless of the disability.”

Squires told The Mirror that “doctors encouraged her to have an immediate abortion without giving her any other options to consider after they checked her 12-week scan,” Husselbee and Kitching reported.

She already knew something was wrong because “the midwife seemed to be concerned.

“She asked if we could go into a side room and that someone would be along to talk to us. “They told us that the baby was highly likely to have Down’s Syndrome due to the large amount of fluid that was placed high on the back of his neck. “Straight away I was told that they advised terminating the pregnancy without giving us any other options or support.

Squires said she was so angry she “told them where to go.”

The couple is encouraging women to get a second opinion.

“There was so much pressure on us to have a termination with no offer of us having support or advice should we want to carry on,” Squires said. “When you’ve been told your baby has a disability you’re obviously in a vulnerable position and it can be easy to make quick rash decisions.”

She acknowledged that “they need to make people fully aware of the commitment and challenges that they can face but for us he would have always been loved.” But….

At nearly two, Jay “is such an amazing little boy and never been sick a day in his life,” Squires told The Mirror. “”We could have lost a healthy baby if we had decided otherwise.”