A woman pro-life activist revealed how grateful she was for not aborting her pregnancy for a child with Down Syndrome despite the cultural opposition against it.
Live Action News reported that Catherine Daub had a long history of activism as a pro-lifer but it was in October 2019 at age 49 after having seven children and nine miscarried babies that she received a call from her doctor that she was pregnant with a boy projected to have 99% having Trisomy 21- or more commonly known as Down Syndrome.
"Despite negative messages during pregnancy, Catherine Daub and her family have learned firsthand the beautiful reality of having a child with Down syndrome," the outlet highlighted on Sunday.
Daub, in an interview with Celebrate Life Magazine, recounted the moment she received the call from her doctor. She said that despite knowing the "secret" to having a child with Down Syndrome having had relatives who have them, she still felt "shocked" and "terrified" in knowing that her unborn child would have it, too.
"I was okay with this news. I really was. We already had a niece and a good friend with Down syndrome, and my husband had had a brother with Down syndrome, so I knew the secret. I knew that we would be welcoming a living saint into our family. I knew that there would be a new kind of peace and joy that would accompany us. But still I was shocked. And terrified," Daub said.
Daub, in 2019, shared that she is already comfortable with her role as ALL's "Culture of Life Studies Program" Director that enables her to provide supplementary materials on the pro-life movement in K-12 curricula.
She was certain that her role then was "how God would use" her to "build a culture of life" while she remains a wife to her husband and a mother to her children. She actually felt that her family was big enough and that the next baby would already be she'll "care for would be a grandchild."
Daub revealed that after receiving news about the status of her pregnancy, she went online to research on about Down Syndrome only to be fueled with more fear after reading negative information about it. She pointed out that the information online was contradictory to what she has experienced with her own niece who had Down Syndrome but it nonetheless frightened her.
"They conflicted with what I knew to be true about my niece and others, but still they swirled in my head," she disclosed.
Daub cited a "What to Expect" popular website that describes children with Down syndrome as having "eyes that slant upward, a flattened nose, a short neck, small ears, a tongue that may stick out of the mouth, large tongue, small hands and feet, and low muscle tone or loose ligaments."
The website also said that such children have a "range of developmental delays" and a "variety of health conditions." It stressed that 60% of babies have problems with their vision, 75% have loss of hearing, 50% have heart defects, and 12% have intestinal blockage requiring surgery at brth. This excludes the likelihood of developing celiac disease, hypothyroidism, and leukemia.
Despite all the negative information, Daub continued with her pregnancy that turned out to be "emotionally challenging." Her son, William, was born on June 2020 with the umbilical cord requiring to be cut before his delivery since it was tightly wrapped around him.
Daub recalled the very first moment she saw William and all her fears "disappeared." She realized that would be her "greatest pro-life work."
"He was beautiful. He was ours. The fears of the last nine months just disappeared-or at least no longer mattered," Daub shared.
"He was here. He was perfect. Against great odds, he had made it. And now I knew for certain, looking into that angelic little face, that God had called us to the greatest pro-life work we could ever be a part of. We would now stand between William and the world. We'd be his voice. And in being his voice, we'd be the voice for others like him," she added.
