I Had to Struggle With My Whole Family After I Gave Birth to a Baby With Down Syndrome

A woman, 35, has been struggling hard with her whole family, because of the tough decision they wanted her to make. She wrote us a letter, in which she told us about her son, who was born with Down’s syndrome. The woman opened up about the important lessons that her 3-year-old son has already taught her and the rest of their family members. The mom asked us to publish her story and she wanted to deliver an important message to our readers who may be facing the same life situation.

Sarah’s son has Down’s syndrome, and the woman was first to notice it.

Sarah, who is 35, wrote a letter to our editorial and opened up about her hard struggles and rewards while being a mom to a special kid. Sarah told us that from the very beginning she felt like the whole world was against her, she was being pushed to a decision she didn’t want to make, and her story may be an inspirational example for many people.

The woman opened her letter, saying, “First of all, I want to thank you, Bright Side, for being such a positive and enlightening spot for people, who want to be heard without any judgement. I want to share my story with the followers of your page and maybe my experience will inspire a lot of people, who are struggling with social opinions and judgements.”

Sarah goes on with her story, saying, “I do LOVE my son, but since he was born, I have been struggling with my whole family, because I have been feeling a lot of pressure. This is the feeling I’ve been waking up to and going to bed with, every day. My boy, Zach, is now 3 years old, and he was born with Down’s syndrome. All 3 years of his life have been a pure happiness for me.”

The woman explained, “Zach is our third and last baby, and we really had no idea he would be born with Down’s syndrome. My husband Paul and I were on cloud nine when we found out we were going to have a third kid, and a long-awaited boy. No tests or ultrasounds showed anything.
I actually was the one who noticed that Zach had Down’s syndrome, but now I severely regret bringing it up to the doctors. Maybe I would’ve just had a chance to enjoy him for a little while longer until other people noticed, instead of thinking about how to deal with unwanted advice and opinion.”

Sarah has 2 other kids, and her motherhood is quite a challenge for her.

Sarah revealed that motherhood has never been an easy thing for her. The woman told us that she has 2 more daughters. She wrote, “My oldest daughter is 9 years old, she’s been born from my previous marriage. The girl is autistic and she’s nonverbal. I’ve been spending an enormous amount of time on her therapy, developmental programs and rehabilitation.
My husband Paul has always loved and accepted her, he plays a big role in her upbringing and their relationship is just perfect. Our middle daughter is a totally neurotypical kid, and she’s the heart of our family, to be honest.”

Sarah confessed that she did have some fears about the future of her middle child. The woman wrote, “I was afraid that she might soon start feeling like she’s being pushed to the side. I expected that I would be so busy with Zach and the oldest girl that I would hardly have time for the middle child, and I was feeling very guilty about this all the time.
My parents added the fuel to the fire, saying that I was almost neglecting my middle daughter, because they noticed that if she asked me to help her with her tasks, or to read for her, or to cuddle a little bit more before the bedtime, I had to do everything quickly for her, because I had 2 other kids to be taken care of. And this was eating me from inside.”

The woman had a lot of daily struggles and her family has been very negligent about it.

Sarah revealed, “Zach is now 3 years old, and I can’t imagine my life without him. Every day with him is a challenge, but I feel so happy when I see that he has achieved even the tiniest milestone! In the meantime, my parents and my 3 sisters have never offered me even the smallest help. But they feel like their advice on how I should act is very much wanted.”

The woman wrote, “My parents weren’t prepared for the news that Zach has Down’s syndrome. My mother started surfing the internet in search of the information about how parents of kids with Down’s syndrome live and what kind of challenges they face on a daily basis. Mom has never sent me any information that would soothe my worries, that would help me cope with my kids better. Instead, she was always emphasizing that I now had a doubled responsibility and that I would not be able to cope with all of my kids.”

Sarah added, “My sisters took turns to talk to me and all of them were pushing me to the decision to give Zach up for adoption. They said that he would be better off in a special place where the professionals would take care of him. They kept insisting that I will fail to give him everything he needs, and I will soon have no time for him at all. This all reached the point when I started having some doubts because of that constant pushing and stress, but soon after I just realized that this all was wrong, that I’m not going to do that, because I love Zach, he’s my son and I will never betray him.”

Sarah revealed that her son has taught her many important lessons so far.

Sarah wrote, “My little son Zach has already taught me more in his 3 years of life than I have learned in my past 35 years of existence. He had to stay in the newborn intensive care unit for a few weeks, and we met some of the most compassionate and wonderful professionals in the world. Unfortunately, we also met others who were much better off keeping their thoughts to themselves, but we finally learned how to cope with unwanted advice.
With Zach, I had to fight with my family to give him a chance. With this fighting, he proved me right and showed that people should open their hearts and give things a chance. Each time I fight for Zach to do something, he accomplishes it and shows people what he is capable of.”

Sarah confessed, “Zach taught us that we should always make sure we celebrate the tiniest things in our lives. Even the little accomplishments can be huge. Zach is so proud of himself when he learns something new, no matter what it is. It may be something tiny to someone else, but to Zach it’s something to be very happy about. So, we learned to focus on celebrating all success and keep helping him to achieve more and more.”

Sarah wrote, “No person is the same. We are all individuals, and we all like different things and are all perfect at different things. Now, my family, including my parents, are learning from Zach that it’s so important to embrace this with anyone. He proved to us all that people with disabilities are no different from everyone else, they shine at what they are good at and what they love to do. With his very existence, Zach says to us, ’Embrace what I am good at and let me shine.’”

And here’s yet another story about a tough dilemma that one woman faced. Her husband made a paternity test on their baby, and the results came back negative, but the woman is sure she had never cheated on her spouse. Read more to find out how it turned out that the test was negative and how the woman discovered the shocking truth behind it.