A mother’s dilemma

"I didn't carry my baby to prove a point or obedience to god or moral values"

Myah Walker is from New Brunswick, Canada.

I was shocked by the diagnosis. The doctor didn't say ‘Your baby has anencephaly', but ‘Your baby has no brain'. That's not something I'd ever heard of before that, and I didn't really believe it. I said, ‘She must have some brain', and she said ‘No'.

They didn't outright advise me to terminate the pregnancy, but it seemed like they weren't accepting or supporting my decision to continue. When I switched doctors, the first thing they asked was why. I was so angry that the first thing that came out of my mouth was, ‘Because abortion is murder', but actually that's not really the reason. I didn't carry my baby to prove a point or obedience to god or moral values. I just wanted to have my baby; I love her no matter what.

I started a blog eight weeks before my due date, just to post pictures and videos for friends and family. Then I started receiving hate mail. It really hurt and I was baffled by it at first. I couldn't understand why they were attacking me. But I've gotten past it. I don't read it anymore.

When she was born alive and thriving, somehow I wasn't really surprised. My hope now is that she'll just continue like she has been doing. I know it sounds crazy to some people, but I honestly believe that she could go on for months or years. I'm not shocked; I know why she's here. But I guess for people who don't really believe in god or miracles, it's pretty much a head-scratcher."

The day Faith was born, weighing 6lb and 9oz (3kg).

Faith's first trip outdoors.

Comments

What's under the hat?

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Mon, 18/05/2009 - 22:43.

Hey Myah, if Faith is such a beautiful miracle from God why not show the world what's under that cute hat? [Deleted]

Unregistered user

wow

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Wed, 27/05/2009 - 20:30.

wow.. i just read ur comment and was shocked.. the way i read it you are being rude and that comment is uncalled for.. you dont ask a mother to take her childs hat off to see the empty skull.. do you not have any compassion or a heart..//

Where are the doctors

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Mon, 18/05/2009 - 05:59.

It is curious to me that this poor child is being touted all over town as some kind of miracle & yet there have been but 2 mainstream media articles about her, with it would seem, absolutely no attempt to gain comment from the hospital where she was born or the doctors who are involved in her care. IF she is indeed a miracle, rather than just a terribly sad part of the 5% of such babies who do make it past their first few hours of life, why isn't anybody of repute interested? Call me a cynic but I can't see the truth here, for all the smoke and mirrors.

Who's paying for this?

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Sun, 17/05/2009 - 01:41.

I'm really wondering... being in Canada, who is actually paying for the life support of this mess? I'm all fine if the parents do pay out of pocket for their "choice". Hey, it's your resources, use it however you see fit. But if the national insurance system pays even a cent to keep this hopeless case alive, it's a gross disservice to the thousands out there who could use that resource for, you know, actual conditions threatening the lives of thinking, feeling humans.

I hope that someone will tell me that they are paying for the care out of their own pockets, and prove my concerns irrelevant. But if the opposite is true, it's truly tragic.

A Mother's Dilemma

Submitted by Carol Miller (not verified) on Sat, 23/05/2009 - 04:23.

I'm wondering if you count yourself as one of these " thinking, feeling humans" or as what you seem to be from your post.......a truly tragic mess.

A truly tragic mess? What

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Mon, 25/05/2009 - 09:14.

A truly tragic mess? What ever happened to not judging others? You fundies are supposed to take the Bible literally. What a nice typical fundie logical fallacy there: attack the poster calling him a tragic mess rather than attack the argument. That baby doesn't have a brain. It has a brain stem, so it can move and breathe and eat, all of the reflex actions. But it can't think. It will never have a quality of life. Yes, I said "it". It's a zombie. A "zombaby", if you will. I remember my friends in middle school told me that there was a condition where you can be born without a brain and still live, and I didn't believe them. Carrying a high-risk baby to term is just dangerous, especially when the baby would most likely be stillborn, so what's the point? They wanted her to abort the baby so she wouldn't get attached to something that was destined to die.
But that's okay, it was already dead.

It's my understanding that

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Mon, 18/05/2009 - 04:42.

It's my understanding that her c-section (elective - and against the initial advice of her doctors - to raise the chances of a live body known as Faith) was paid for by the gov't. Feeding tube - emergency room visits - presumably thanks to Canadian Healthcare. Prednisolone and Pulmicort ????

It is tragic that this

Submitted by Concerned (not verified) on Thu, 14/05/2009 - 00:22.

It is tragic that this mother continues to keep a child alive by tube feeding and expensive medications, who by all appearances in videos has no sense perception, no interactuion with the outside world and no life truly. The child in latest images does not even appear healthy and according to Myah at more than 10 weeks old is barely above her birth weight. The father Dan Lirette has even publically expressed an interest in touring with Myah and Faith as a mean of proclaiming their "ministry". This is little more than exploitation and not much better than what Myah Walker is doing by making her child's existance such a public spectacle. The child is the adulterous result of a married man and a young woman who met and were publically proclaiming the gospel in a radical way. The result of their "work" was a tragedy which continues to unfold in the public light.

That's the damn irony...the

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Sat, 23/05/2009 - 18:03.

That's the damn irony...the thing is already DEAD! Let it rest.

hey dipshit. Before you yell

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Tue, 26/05/2009 - 10:09.

hey dipshit. Before you yell at people. Get your head out of your ass. the first post you responded to was posted BEFORE the baby died

I like how...

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Wed, 13/05/2009 - 17:13.

I like how pro-lifers want her to be left alone and rant about how she has a right to keep the child, but refuse to leave women who have abortions alone and insist they have no right to get rid of a child. lolwut

Amen!

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Sat, 23/05/2009 - 18:04.

I admire you Myah. You are

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Tue, 05/05/2009 - 21:12.

I admire you Myah. You are a pure example of what God chose women to be...God bless you on your first Mother's Day. I love watching the videos of sweet Faith. Stay strong!

Baby Faith

Submitted by Dan Lirette (not verified) on Mon, 04/05/2009 - 01:45.

I'm going to be man enough to admit that Faith is my baby. When I first found out Myah was pregnant and that baby was sick, I was a coward and ran away. I thought it was okay to do because I asked jesus to forgive me. Maybe he has, but I know whose forgiveness I really need is Myah's. I'm sorry you have had to do this on your own Myah - you are much stronger than me. You, me, and Faith could OA preach together and really make a difference.

wow. insult myah by

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Tue, 05/05/2009 - 04:32.

wow. insult myah by claiming to be the father. that's very classy.

Dan Lirette has admitted

Submitted by Rainbow Kittens (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2009 - 10:49.

Dan Lirette has admitted that he is the father. You can read about it here: http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Dan_Lirette

Dan Lirette

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Sat, 09/05/2009 - 16:07.

Maybe you haven't heard, but Dan Lirette IS the father. He confessed his adulterous affair to both his congregation and wrote a tell all testimony that you can actually google up. Seriously, google it.

Submitted by Kelly (not verified) on Wed, 27/05/2009 - 00:31.

Well considering this is the internet lets just stop and think for a moment HOW UNLIKELY it is Dan Chose this very site to admit parental obligation?? OH WAIT everyone on the internet tells the truth totally slipped my mind!!

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Sat, 02/05/2009 - 19:16.

Where is the father in all of this?

article

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Fri, 01/05/2009 - 18:24.

I am very dissapointed with this article... I have asked 3 times now that it be taken down, as my actual words have been cut and pasted together and some have been taken out of context. Again, please remove this article, as I don't approve of the editing! Please respect my wishes... thank you.

Myah Walker

Evidently freedom of

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Sat, 23/05/2009 - 09:07.

Evidently freedom of expression doesn't apply when it concerns you, eh?

Dan Lirette, Dan Lirette,

Submitted by Dan Lirette (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2009 - 10:51.

Dan Lirette, Dan Lirette, Dan Lirette!

walk a mile...

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Thu, 30/04/2009 - 23:50.

Mya,

I have seen your blog and I am amazed at how brave and strong you are. How loved your little Faith is. I am currently 4 1\2 months pregnant with a baby who has anencephaly. It has been a heartbreaking few weeks where my husband and I have been soul-searching as to what we are going to do. We have made our decision to induce labour within the next few weeks. We will honour our much loved and much wanted baby with a baptism and funeral. I too have a deep faith and pray that God believes that what we are doing is done with the deepest love for our baby. I would never judge anyone having to face this decision and I am sorry that you have received very hurtful comments. Anyone reading this please know, that to have a doctor tell you that this baby you already love and anticipate and have hopes and dreams for will never have hopes and dreams themselves, is devastating. So please, try to walk a mile in our shoes before you judge. If you choose to carry to term you are a monster for letting your child suffer, yet if you choose to induce your pregnancy, you are a murderer. It is so hard to comprehend either when you are grieving for what might have been and what you so desparately wanted. In the end what I'd like to say is God bless you Faith and when you make your way to heaven, may you dance in the wind and fly with the angels. Godspeed.

You're only a murderer in

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Mon, 25/05/2009 - 09:25.

You're only a murderer in the eyes of fundies. I'm pro-choice, and I think in this situation inducing pregnancy to let him die peacefully is a good middle route. It's too far into the pregnancy for an abortion, so that would be dangerous. This is why doctors encourage the abortion of anencephalic feti, so you don't get attached to something that will die. Doctors know what they're doing. Of course you have the choice to continue the pregnancy, that's what pro-choice is all about. But you have to think what's best for the baby and yourself. Do you want to be tortured by all of the constant care that goes into taking care of it for only a couple of days, and then tortured by the loss? Or do you want to let it die in the comfort of the mother's womb before hand and cut your losses. It's easier to mourn a miscarriage than to a stillborn.

Egocentrism

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Thu, 30/04/2009 - 09:25.

Real God says "love others as yourself " !
have you also a contract with what You called "God", that will take care
of your child, and not let her suffer at all, also after you won't be able to do so?

And you through to us that you are person full of love !
But it seems here, that your egoistical desire for a child was so Huge that you didn't think for a sinlge moment of the future of this innocent creature to be brought in life with such problems for herself.
What this person is going to face in her future ? Was not her choice to face all that to come ! was Yours !
Who gave you the right to torture a person so much, when you had a choice to eliberate it while she was still a foetus !

True!

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Sat, 23/05/2009 - 18:10.

Myah

Submitted by Marianne (not verified) on Sun, 03/05/2009 - 11:36.

Yes God says "love others as yourself" and nobody wants their life to be ended before it starts! Nobody has the right to take someone else life...
When my sister was pregnant, the doctor asked her to abort her baby as there was a 80% certainty that he will be born mutilated.... it was a nightmare in our family and sadness to everybody, she prayed and decided to keep the baby despite doctors requests. Now Gabro is a miracle in our family and 100% healthy...
Also Faith is a blessing to her mom and the miracle of the family, she is blesses and loved and complete as any of us... God loved her before she was born and only Him has the right to take her life when He wishes.
Don't understand this hatred and how people would have no faith in God and His continuous blessings!
Good decision and congratulations to mother and daughter...