Janaya signed in for the test, checked her e-mail one more time, and nervously took a seat in the waiting room.
Within minutes, she was following the receptionist down the hall to the exam room.
She didn't have to undress. She lay down on the examining table and bared her belly. They would do an ultrasound first, the technician told her.
Do you want to know the sex? she asked Janaya.
Yes.
She was 16 weeks pregnant. The technician looked at the screen and paused. I can't tell. Let me get the doctor to check, she told Janaya.
Moments later, the doctor came in and repeated the ultrasound.
It's a boy, he told Janaya. And then the hammer.
There's a problem.
What? What did he mean?
The doctor was matter-of-fact: The baby had a birth defect. His intestines appeared to have spilled out of a hole in his abdominal wall.
The doctor told her it was probably something called gastroschisis or possibly omphalocele, a similar defect.
She started to shake. She tried to hold back, control her emotions, but she could not.
Janaya began to cry.
You need to see a specialist, the doctor said. He mentioned Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Some women, he was telling her, consider termination at this point.
Her mind was reeling.
Would her baby live? Should she end the pregnancy? Could her baby have a normal life?
Helpless
Janaya couldn't sleep.
Instead, she sat at her computer, searching for information, studies, anything that might help her understand what was going on - and decide what to do.
Research was something she was good at.
She discovered that most gastroschisis cases involve younger women - those in their late teens or early 20s.
So maybe it wasn't that.
Older mothers were more likely to carry babies with omphalocele. But those babies were at higher risk of having other birth defects.
She was overwhelmed. Could the baby have even more problems?
