Mother Refuses Abortion for One of Her Triplets: ‘He Was in Me and He Was Safe’

By Kelli
National Right to Life

Tracey Kirby was shocked and excited when she learned she was pregnant with three boys – one singleton and a set of twins. But at 18-19 weeks, doctors found that the twins had twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, in which the blood vessels of the twins’ shared placenta are connected, resulting in one twin receiving too much blood and the other not receiving enough.

Doctors suggested a “selective reduction,” but Tracey and husband Paul were adamantly against it. Tracey told the UK’s Mirror, “The idea of selective reduction [terminating one or more fetuses in the pregnancy] was discussed, but it just wasn’t something I was willing to do. I just thought ‘I’m going to do the best I can for the three of them’.” She added that a selective reduction would have also put her at greater risk for miscarrying all three boys.

Even though Tracey’s pregnancy was a highly unusual circumstance, it is not uncommon for doctors to suggest selective reduction in pregnancies with multiples. Live Action News’ Rebecca Downs described the disturbing procedure in a previous article:

The method used by Dr. Mark I. Evans involves targeting one or more of the preborn children and inserting a needle of potassium chloride into his or her heart. Sometimes the babies move before succumbing to death and get the first needle in an arm or a leg, but once the needle enters a baby’s heart, it is fatal. The idea has alarmingly become a trend over the past few years.

Instead, Tracey had an ablation surgery — which “involves putting a needle and camera into the mum’s womb, and using a laser to seal off the connecting blood vessels in the shared placenta” — in an attempt to remediate the twins’ condition, and during the procedure all the triplets were visible.

Tracey told the Mirror of the twins, “… you could see their little finger nails and they both had blond hair.”

Sadly, the surgery was unsuccessful and the twin receiving too much blood passed away in the womb at approximately 25 weeks. “It was just such a complete shock. They said he’d probably had a cardiac arrest with all that extra blood pumping into his body,” Tracey told the Mirror. His parents named him Cayden (“little fighter” in Celtic), chosen because “he carried on fighting until his little heart gave up.”

Tracey carried all three boys for seven more weeks. “I knew [Cayden] was in there and with his brothers and I just wanted to keep things that way,” Tracey told the Mirror. “I saw a bereavement specialist and we started discussing the funeral.”

“Those seven weeks I had him in my tummy and I treasured that. I knew once they were born he would be gone. I liked that he was in me and he was safe. For the rest of my pregnancy I could talk to all three of them and I was happy they were all together,” she said.

Brothers Henry and James came into the world alive at 32 weeks. James was 3 pounds, 6 ounces, and Henry (the surviving twin) weighed just 1 pound, 8 ounces.

In the video above, Tracey speaks about receiving bereavement support after the loss of little Cayden. However, she’s reminded of the loss every time someone refers to the boys as “twins.” She told the Mirror, “… [I]t still hits me when people call the boys twins – they’ll always be triplets…. there isn’t a day goes by where we don’t think about Cayden.”

National Right to Life story continues

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