(BBC) — An unborn baby has had surgery on her spine while she was still in her mother’s womb.
Bethan Simpson, 26, from Maldon, Essex, was told her unborn daughter Eloise had spina bifida at her 20-week scan.
Mrs. Simpson has become one of the first mothers in the UK to undergo the pioneering “fetal repair” surgery.
During a four-hour operation her womb was opened and her baby’s bottom exposed, allowing surgeons to “sew up” a tiny gap in her lower spine.
Mrs. Simpson said she “couldn’t justify terminating a child I could feel kicking.” … Mrs. Simpson said she and husband Keiron were advised to terminate her pregnancy after the condition was diagnosed, but the decision to opt for fetal repair was a “no-brainer.”
“I’m being told she’s paralyzed, but she very much wasn’t,” Mrs. Simpson said.
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