Everybody is confronted to hard times. The most important is to find the strength to move on, one way or another. Emy’s teen years have been torn up by a tragedy. Today, she’s coming back on her story.
Emy was sixteen when she accidently got pregnant. As she wasn’t showing any sign of her pregnancy, she did not notice it until three months. After much thought and against her parents’ consent, she decided to keep the baby with Georges*, her partner. This happened on 2012 when she was just a middle school girl. Emy and Georges met each other on 2010, both sharing the same passion for music. Two years later, she stopped studying, to focus on her pregnancy at home and escape from the sight of others “I was insulted by people from other schools I never been to”. At this time, Georges was eighteen and left college six months after Emy, to get ready for the childbirth. As her gestation went by, she was being watched closely by professionals and the baby seemed to develop correctly « the gynaecologist kept on telling us it would be a very beautiful baby » she recalls.
« I THOUGHT ABOUT HIM FIRST »
One day, as Emy was about eight months pregnant, the doctor noticed that something was wrong and suggested a thorough review. “The ultrasound revealed that the baby was showing signs of
Spina Bifida and would be seriously handicapped physically and mentally.” she explained. Spina Bifida is a congenital deformation of the vertebral column and the spinal cord. This disease is due to a lack of acid folic, known as B9 vitamin that is key in the formation of blood cells and the maturation of body’s cells. The gynaecologist informed Emy and Georges about the poor quality of life the baby would have later on and told them that they had to make a decision. “I thought about him first, I didn’t want my baby to have this kind of life.” Unable to assume such a situation, Georges and Emy made a hard decision to terminate the pregnancy. Before doing this, Emy did an amniocentesis to verify the mental state of the little child. “We wanted to know who our baby was” she explained. This action had to be validated by a special hospital committee, given the advanced of the gestation. On April 18th 2012, fifteen days later, Emy gave birth to a little boy of almost two pounds. “I remember the midwives were stupefied by his beauty. They said he was looking as a full-term baby” she says. Denying the help of the psychological unit of the hospital, Emy faced some real hard times, on her own “In the maternity, I could hear all babies crying while I just lost mine” she remembered. “Two months after, I realized what has happened.” Emy went under a deep depression. “At this time, Georges and I considered it as a failure. »
THE STRENGH TO MOVE ON
Five years after, Emy became a women and dares now talking about her teenage wound. “To me it isn’t a subject to avoid because it built my identity” She affirmed. “In every tragedy, there’s a positive point” that’s what Emy entrusted me. Georges and her are still together today. Through this tragedy, they find the strength to recover and returned to their normal life. “We did a new start from this experience” she added. They’ll never forget they had a baby but they didn’t keep on feel pity for themselves. On the contrary, they strengthened their relationship. This story shows the importance of family. Though such life experience, Emy recognized “I have been lucky to be well surrounded, without my friends & family I certainly wouldn’t be here”. This dark period has also been the main source of inspiration to Georges, who made a beautiful music album in memory of his son.
*The name have been modified to maintain witness’s privacy.
