Your S’pore Story: ‘We were told that our baby had a 50% chance of Down syndrome’
Although the news made them feel shocked and later numb, this couple declined further tests, only hoping that their first child would be happy
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Ms Krist Ng and Mr Nathanael Hou name their baby son Isaac because they want him to be happy all his life.
PHOTO: SPH MEDIA
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One Monday morning, Ms Krist Ng received a call from the hospital and the nurse on the line said her baby had a 50 per cent chance of having Down syndrome
Stunned, the volunteer manager at a social service agency stepped away from her desk and broke down in the office washroom.
Watch her video here.
At 35, she had chosen to start a family later in life and now questioned whether age had stacked the odds against her.
That evening, she sat with her husband, Nathanael Hou, also 35, to share the news.
The customer service executive, too, was overwhelmed.
A quiet guilt crept in. His family had relatives with special needs. Could it be genetic?
But after the tears and doubt, the couple made a firm choice. They declined further testing and decided to carry on with the pregnancy – with hope, not fear. It turned out to be the right call.
Earlier this year, Ms Ng gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Isaac, whom the doctors certified as having no underlying conditions.
Mr Hou and Ms Ng went through the pregnancy without undergoing further tests to ascertain if their baby had Down syndrome. Ms Ng gave birth to a healthy baby this March named Isaac, which means ‘he who laughs’.
PHOTO: SPH MEDIA
“We were told that our baby had a 50 per cent chance of Down syndrome. After the call from the hospital nurse, everything became a blur as we swung between a state of shock and a state of numbness.
But we decided not to go for further screenings and be tainted with preconceived notions of what our boy will be like. We wanted to enjoy the process of our pregnancy and just hope that he would be a child who’s happy and who can laugh.
We never thought of letting Isaac go because of our beliefs. Our relatives also told us to reach out to them if we needed more support. And instead of saying this is a bad start, we thought of what we can do with him for the next 20 or 40 years.
Because we were classified as a high-risk pregnancy, we did diagnostic scans on Level 2 at the hospital but at week 20, they told us everything looked normal and we could join the rest of the pack at the monitoring clinic on Level 1 for routine scans.
We saw that ‘demotion’ as a win!
Each time the doctors told us that our baby was very active or chubby, we saw it as a good thing.
The first time we saw our son on the ultrasound scans, we thought, ‘Wow, it looks like he’s going to be handsome!’ Then, we would see him somersaulting in the womb. Seeing how he was taking on our traits brought us joy.
For our baby, we chose the name Isaac because in our faith, the name means ‘he who laughs’. We want him to be happy no matter the outcome, however his life would be. We just want him to be filled with joy and that’s what we wished for in his name.”
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