Nine years ago my cousin had a beautiful baby named Ariana, which means "Holy one". This name has a significant and symbolic meaning in the context of my family. My cousin, having endured a difficult and strenuous pregnancy leading up to my goddaughter's birth, bestowed this name upon her to symbolize their struggle to have a child and her fight for survive. At that moment, I came to fully understand and appreciate the miracle of birth. The following story has had a profound impact on my motivation to become a doctor of medicine.
Approximately twenty-seven and a half weeks into her pregnancy, my cousin gave birth to a premature infant. Weighing only two pounds, the baby was very small and underdeveloped. The whole family was devastated when the baby died in the hospital after living for only two weeks. However, this did not prevent my cousin and her husband from trying to have another baby. Months later my cousin was pregnant again. She carried the baby for twelve weeks, when she had a miscarriage. Based on this medical history, my cousin was diagnosed with Cervical Incompetence. Shortly thereafter, my cousin became pregnant again, and the doctors advised her to have surgery in order to sustain the pregnancy. Doctors performed cervical cerclage in hopes that she would carry the baby to term. Only ten weeks into the pregnancy, my cousin was placed on strict bed rest following the surgery. Amniocentesis was one test that the doctors performed to my cousin to check the baby's health. One week went by, and my cousin was called to get the results of the test. That day I went with her to the doctor's office. The doctor informed my cousin that the baby presented trisonomy 21, also known as Down Syndrome. When we heard the results at first we could not believe it, especially because my cousin at that age was not in a high risk to have a baby with Down Syndrome. It was something hard to realize that after so much suffering and desire to have this baby; she will have to confront with this new challenge in her life.