New Book Offers Hope and Help to Those Carrying and Raising Children with Disabilities: My Child, My Gift: A Positive Response to a Serious Prenatal Diagnosis, By Madeline P. Nugent, Published by New City Press, 2008.(Book review)

Each year, approximately four million babies are born in the United States. Government sources say about 3% of those children, or about 120,000, will be born with some sort of disability. Many of these are operable or treatable, but some involve conditions for which there is currently no effective medical treatment or have generally been found to be incompatible with extended life.

Testing for such anomalies is now offered to pregnant women as a matter of course. The reaction of the medical establishment, as well as many in the society at large, to a serious prenatal diagnosis, however, has often been to urge parents to abort a child that might be born with a disability, whether the condition is thought to be incompatible with life or not. Those families receiving a grimmer prognosis may face enormous pressure to abort.

What can a concerned pro-lifer say to young parents who have just been told that an ultrasound shows their baby's brain isn't developing? How can a pregnant mom stare down a medical establishment that doesn't want to help her give birth to her child with a disability? What sort of practical assistance and encouragement will help a family with a diagnosis of Down syndrome feel more confident in managing their situation?

There's a new book that will not only help those dealing with a serious prenatal diagnosis but will also enable those who want to support others who choose life in challenging circumstances. Madeline P. Nugent's My Child, My Gift: A Positive Response to a Serious Prenatal Diagnosis is a wonderful, positive, practical guide to those facing such a diagnosis in a culture that does not always welcome the weak, the sick, or the different.

Nugent's sensitivity and gentleness are evident on each page. They are things our abortion-saturated society desperately needs to relearn.

The book is filled with practical advice and information. But the bulk of it is first-hand accounts of parents who have lived through, and experienced the blessing of, the birth of a child with a disability.

Positive but not Pollyannaish, Nugent admits that many of those children with the most severe disabilities will die soon after birth. Countering prevailing social and medical trends, though, Nugent argues and offers evidence that aborting the childnot allowing the pregnancy to progress to conclude naturallyoften only brings further damage to the family and its relationships.