Married couples around the world share the journey of having children together. It is something that they decide from the start but sometimes, the question as to why may come up.
One person who has been asked why they plan to have children is Charli Worgan. She and her husband, Cullen live in Sydney and they both suffer from a form of dwarfism, although the type of dwarfism is different. They often are scrutinized because of their decision to have children.
When Charli gave birth to her first child, she decided it was time to launch an account on social media to help people understand what goes on in their family life. They now have two daughters, and 300,000 followers on that social media platform.
Something that was also revealed on social media was that Charli was pregnant with her third child and was 14 weeks along. Some people were happy for her but others still had the same questions.
Each time that she got pregnant, she had to go through genetic testing to make sure everything was okay. Because they both have genetic problems, they wanted to make sure that the offspring was not inheriting the form of dwarfism or would inherit both types of dwarfism. According to specialists, that would be very bad.
The mother said: “However when most at 12 weeks are celebrating the joy of being able to announce pregnancy, I was lining up for Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS – similar to an Amniocentesis) – that’s a massive needle through my abdomen to take a sample of placenta that carries a 2% rate of miscarriage, in order to test the genetic makeup of my baby.”
Her daughters, who were two years old and four years old both have one of the two types of dwarfism. When she got pregnant with the third child, they wanted to find out which of the four possibilities the baby had.
She explained it in this way:
1. We would have a baby of average height
2. Our baby would have Achondroplasia, the same form of Dwarfism as me.
3. Our baby would have Geleophysic Dysplasia, the same form of Dwarfism as Cullen.
4. Our baby would inherit both genetic variations, know as “double dominant dwarfism”, which from all professional medical evaluations would be fatal upon birth. I would have had the choice should this occur to carry on and see how things go, or to terminate the pregnancy.
She also said that they received a lot of criticism for sharing their life publicly but she said that having babies with those odds and sharing that piece of the puzzle with others is all about being kind.
This couple now has three beautiful children who are doing well and the family is still sharing information on social media. We hope that they have many years of happiness together.