I won’t abort our doomed baby...I’ll donate her organs so others can live
“A part of her will live on, she won’t be completely gone. She will be alive in somebody else.
“It is her Christmas gift to other poorly babies.”
She said that after the birth she also plans to donate one of her own kidneys, adding: “I want to give one in her honour.”
The Martins, who already have daughters Kiowa, seven, Layla, five, and son Oliver, two, were ecstatic when they discovered they were expecting again.
But their happiness soon turned to heartbreak after learning their child would not survive.
The five-month scan to find out the sex of their child also revealed a rare genetic disorder, bilateral renal agenesis.
It is always fatal and means the baby has no kidneys and is not surrounded by enough amniotic fluid, causing malformed lungs.
While many parents would choose to terminate and avoid the trauma of giving birth to a dying child, Hayley decided to continue. She said: “Of course it’s heartbreaking. I see other pregnant mums happily expecting and I feel such sorrow.
“I can feel Ava inside me but I know I won’t get to bring her up.
“Even seeing babies in the supermarket can leave me in floods of tears.
“But I am determined to create something positive out of this agonising experience.”
The couple are not sure what Ava-Joy will be able to donate but her heart valves, liver cells and pancreas could be options.
Ava-Joy’s due date is January 25 but she will be induced so she is not stillborn. Hayley said: “Even if I get just one second of her opening her little eyes, no one can ever take that away from me.
“Ava-Joy, no matter what, will always be my daughter.”
Hayley said she hopes her story will encourage other mothers in the same situation to follow suit. Hayley Martin, from Hull, – whose unborn child will not survive being born – and her husband Scott, right, and left with daughters Layla, 5, far left, Kiowa, 7, and son Oliver, 2