Three years ago, Kelle Hampton burst onto the scene with a telling of how her daughter’s diagnosis of Down syndrome was delivered. In a recent post, she shares how her daughter’s doing now and what they’ve learned.
Hampton’s post on how her daughter’s diagnosis was delivered passed like wildfire through Facebook posts and e-mail links when it went up. She shares how her doctor caringly delivered the diagnosis.
After covering the recommended way for giving a postnatal diagnosis, I have featured the quote below in several of my presentations as an example. Hampton suspected that her daughter had Down syndrome while Hampton was pregnant, so the actual delivery of the diagnosis confirmed her mother’s intuition. But how it was delivered, and how Hampton tells it, never fails to cause those in the audience to get a bit misty-eyed:
My pediatrician snuggled Nella up in a blanket and handed her to me…and she knelt down next to my bed so that she could look up at me…not down. She smiled so warmly and held my hand so tight. And she never took her eyes off mine. We had been through a lot together with Lainey’s jaundice and I have spent many tearful conversations with her over the course of these two and a half years. She is an amazing pediatrician. But at this moment, she became more than that. She was our friend as she beautifully shared the news.
I need to tell you something.
…and I cried hard… “I know what you’re going to say.”
She smiled again and squeezed my hand a little tighter.
The first thing I’m going to tell you is that your daughter is beautiful and perfect.
…and I cried harder.
…but there are some features that lead me to believe she may have Down Syndrome.
Finally, someone said it.
I felt hot tears stream down and fall on my baby’s face. My beautiful, perfect daughter. I was scared to look up at Brett, so I didn’t. I just kissed her.
And then, Dr. Foley added…
…but, Kelle….she is beautiful. and perfect.
It is a wonderful example of delivering a postnatal diagnosis, starting at the very beginning with the positioning of the physician so she was not standing over Hampton.
Well, it’s been over three years since that story was shared and now Hampton’s daughter is a busy three-year old. In her most recent post, she shares photos and stories of what her daughter is experiencing and what both her daughter and her family are learning.
Hampton shares how she has met many people with Down syndrome and become a member of (for-lack-of-a-better-term) the Down syndrome community. Because she is still in the “middle of it,” she describes how their lives are “under construction,” which I thought apt given yesterday’s post about “building a life.”
HT (hat tip) to Downsyndromepregnancy for featuring Hampton’s post on its Facebook page.
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