« I had my first pregnancy pretty well, apart from non-stop vomiting until the sixth month of pregnancy.
I carried out all the standard checks (blood test, ultrasounds) and I even had ultrasounds every month.
I was 22 years old, and my partner 26 years old, and I was very far from imagining everything that was going to happen… And yet during my pregnancy, there was only one thing that scared me, I did. feared deep inside me for no apparent particular reason in view of my “normal” exam results.
On July 15, 2016, at 23:58 p.m., I gave birth to my son Gabriel in a clinic near my home. My partner and I were so happy, our long-awaited little wonder was finally here, in our arms.
The next morning, everything changed.
The maternity pediatrician told me point blank, without taking any gloves, or even having the correction to wait for my partner to arrive: “Your baby surely has Down’s syndrome. We’ll do a karyotype to be sure. With that, he leaves the nursery because he has to go see his own daughter. He leaves me stranded, alone, devastated by the news, crying all the tears in my body.
In my head, I was wondering: how am I going to announce it to my spouse? He was on his way to come and see us.
Why us ? Why my son? I’m young, I’m only 22, it’s not possible, I’m in the middle of a nightmare, I’m going to wake up any minute, I’m at the end of my rope, I tell myself that I will not succeed!
How is it possible that the health professionals did not detect anything… I was angry with the whole Earth, I was completely lost.
My best friend arrives at the maternity ward, very happy for me. She’s the first to know about it: seeing me in tears, she worries and asks me what’s going on. I could not bring myself to wait for the arrival of daddy: I tell her the terrible news, and she hugs me, not believing it either.
The daddy arrives right after, she leaves us both. Obviously, he does absolutely everything not to crack in front of me. He supports me and tells me that everything will be fine, he reassures me. He goes outside to clear his mind for a few minutes and cries in his turn.
I could not wait, get my baby out of this clinic and finally go home, so that we can resume our new life together, and try to put aside this bad stage in life and enjoy the good times with our little angel.
Three weeks later, the verdict falls, Gabriel has Down’s syndrome. We suspected it, but the shock is still present. I had inquired on the internet about the steps that had to be taken, because the doctors let us go into nature without telling us anything …
Multiple control ultrasounds: cardiac, renal, fontanelles …
Multiple blood tests also, procedures with the MDPH (departmental house for disabled people) and Social Security.
The sky is falling on our heads again: Gabriel suffers from a heart defect (this affects around 40% of people with Down’s syndrome), he has a large VIC (intra-ventricular communication), as well as a small CIA. (in-ear communication). At three and a half months, he had to undergo an open heart operation in Necker in order to fill in the “holes”, so that he could finally gain weight and breathe normally without feeling like he was running a non-stop marathon. Fortunately, the operation was a success.
So small and already so many trials to face! My son is a “warrior”. His operation allowed us to put things into perspective, we were so afraid for him, afraid of losing him. For surgeons it’s a routine operation, but for us young parents, it was a whole different story.
Today, Gabriel is 16 months old, he is a very happy and happy baby, he fills us with happiness. Life is not always easy, of course, between weekly medical appointments (physiotherapist, psychomotor therapist, speech therapist, pediatrician, etc.) and the fact that he falls ill all the time (recurrent bronchitis, bronchiolitis, pneumopathies) because of its very low rate of immune defenses.
But he gives it back to us. We realize that in life, health is what matters most with the family. You have to know how to appreciate what you have and the simple pleasures in life. My son offers us a great lesson in life. We will always have to fight for everything with him, so that he develops as well as possible, and we always will, because he deserves it, like any other child. “
Méghane, mother of Gabriel