I wished my Down’s son had died in the womb
But now mum ‘wouldn’t change him for the world’
WHEN Claire Farrington’s baby was diagnosed with Down’s syndrome, she wished she’d had a termination.
Faced with what she saw as a terrible burden, she ‘punched a wall’ when she learned that her three-week-old son Theo, who was born prematurely, suffered from the condition.
But the 40-year-old says that she now adores her ‘perfect’ one-yearold and ‘wouldn’t change him for the world’.
Miss Farrington, from Crouch End, north London, said: ‘I am ashamed to say, at the time, I wished we’d had a termination. I could have discarded Theo, without getting to know him, which would have been such a mistake.’
Reflecting on the moment she discovered that her child had Down’s syndrome, she added: ‘I was completely horrified. I immediately wished he hadn’t survived.
‘I punched the wall. I was so angry this was happening to us.
‘I had all these preconceptions about Down’s syndrome and just didn’t want this to have happened to me and Andrew.’
Down’s syndrome is a genetic condition that typically causes learning disabilities and characteristic physical features.
In July 2015, Miss Farrington became pregnant with her partner, Andrew Papadimitriou, 27.
They were overjoyed, until, at a scan at 29 weeks, a doctor told Miss Farrington she would have to give birth soon as her baby was deprived of oxygen and had stopped growing.
‘I was shocked. I just wanted to grab my belly and run away,’ Miss Farrington said. Three days later,
‘I punched the wall’
on January 18, 2016, Theo was delivered by an emergency caesarean section, weighing just 2lb 2oz.
She said: ‘He was pounced on straight away by 12 people. I couldn’t believe how tiny he was.
‘I just wanted to hold him, like any other mum wants to cradle their newborn baby. But I couldn’t, and it broke my heart.’
When Theo was three weeks old, doctors gave them even more life-changing news – their baby had Down’s syndrome. This came as a huge shock as Miss Farrington had undergone the standard NHS screenings – a blood test and an ultrasound – for the condition at 20 weeks, but nothing had been detected.
Finally, after four months in hospital, Theo was discharged in April last year, just a week after his due date.
Still coming to terms with her son’s diagnosis, Miss Farrington joined mother and baby groups and started a blog, called Mum on a Different Path, to document her journey.
But it wasn’t until a trip to Croatia in August that she finally turned a corner.
‘We were on a family holiday, trying to live like any other normal family and it was perfect,’ she said. ‘It was then that I felt a sense of peace with everything that had happened. Theo may have Down’s syndrome, but he’s an adorable, happy little lad.’
Miss Farrington admits she still struggles, but adores her son and wants to have more children.
She said: ‘I want to tell all the mums who might have a similar journey to me that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
‘It’s still hard. I am still coming to terms with how much our lives have altered, but I wouldn’t change Theo for the world now. His life isn’t worth any less than a typical child’s, he’s perfect.’