Dear Medical Professionals

In my opinion, I was lucky that we had a birth diagnosis. If you ask Tim he would disagree – he would have rather known ahead of time. But in a Facebook group, I just read about a parent pregnant and not enjoying her pregnancy because of the repeated urging of doctors to not have her baby. [Trying to convince her] That the baby’s life will not be a quality one and they will have struggles. This breaks my heart because I believe Monroe has a quality life, and yes she has struggles, but we all do. I believe because of her our whole family is better. I hear these stories over and over in the Down syndrome community. I wish the medical professionals that continue to encourage folks to end their pregnancy because of Down syndrome would walk through GiGi’s Playhouse. I wish they would meet Monroe and have a CONVERSATION with her…maybe they would make a different recommendation and say, “Oh my goodness, you are SO lucky your child has Down syndrome!”

Christina Ziga-Budd, GiGi’s Playhouse Canton Board member and parent

October 2021