Mom gives birth to stillborn daughter at 16 weeks & shares pics of their painful goodbye

Justine Zampogna, a 28-year-old woman from Perth, Australia, had to make a difficult decision: terminating her pregnancy at 16 weeks or carrying it full term even though the baby would only live a few hours.

The woman and her partner, Ty, were very excited about giving their first child, Chase, a little sister. The couple even named the baby Gia and couldn’t wait to meet her. Unfortunately, fate had a different plan.

Since they were away for the 12-week scan, Justine rearranged it for the 14th week. After that, the couple got a call from the hospital telling them that they needed to talk to the doctor as soon as possible.

THE HEARTBREAKING NEWS

Once there, the doctor said that Gia had anencephaly, a neural tube defect so severe that, if a fetus makes it to full term and the mother gives birth to them, the baby would only survive a few hours.

The couple had to choose whether they carried on with the pregnancy or terminate it. At 16 weeks, Justine took a pill to stop the placenta from working and, later that week, she delivered her stillborn baby.

THE HARDEST DECISION IN HER LIFE

After saying that there was no right or wrong, Justine admitted that giving birth to Gia was the only way to get the closure she needed. The lady pointed out that taking the pill was the hardest thing in her life.

“That moment when I took the pill had to be the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my entire life, but as part of the process of birthing her I had to do it. It was so tough to swallow that pill when I knew what it was going to do,” revealed Justine.

THE LAST HOURS WITH THE BABY

After giving birth of Gia on August 27, 2018, the couple spent six hours with the baby. Since not many people talk about pregnancy and infant loss, Justine decided to share her experience both on Instagram and her blog.

“I cried throughout the entire delivery, but my tears weren’t from saying goodbye, they were from accepting she was gone. It was so heartbreakingly beautiful and the closure that we needed. I felt like after everything we had been through, we deserved to have our very own birth story too," finished Justine.

SARAH JADE’S CASE

Unfortunately, Justine is not the only mother who endured the loss of their baby while in the womb. Sarah Jade, who was 33 weeks pregnant, delivered a boy named Aksel Jude even though he passed during the pregnancy due to critical complications with his brain's development.

The pregnancy was so far along that the only way to "expulse" the baby was through labor as if Aksel was alive, so Jade contacted childbirth photographer Lacey Barratt to document the entire heartbreaking process.