At 26 weeks pregnant, Australian mum Danielle Mitchell was faced with a decision no parent ever wants to make.
The influencer and fitness program founder and her husband were told their unborn daughter had multiple health issues including heart defects, organs growing on the outside of her body and chromosomal abnormalities.
Specialists said the defects were incompatible with life outside the womb.
The couple, who have another daughter named Bette, made the heartbreaking decision to proceed with a termination for medical reasons (TFMR).
Rather than grieve in silence, Danielle chose to document the journey, from receiving Maggie’s diagnosis to the birth of their “‘sleeping angel’. Her hope is that by sharing the unimaginable, another family facing the same devastating path might feel a little less alone, while ensuring Maggie’s life is never forgotten.
A Life-Changing Diagnosis
The path to Maggie’s diagnosis wasn’t a straight one, with weeks of tests and results to discuss with specialists along the way, until they finally had all of the information.
After an amniocentesis and a maternal foetal medicine appointment, Danielle and her husband Nathan were taken into a consultation room where they received the results they had been dreading.
“I knew it was bad when they put us in an empty room, with nothing but a couch, a chair for the doctor and a side table with a box of tissues,” she shared on Instagram.
Doctors explained that Maggie’s growth had slowed significantly and that further scans had revealed multiple serious abnormalities, including several heart defects and findings affecting her brain. Danielle said specialists told them Maggie’s chromosomal condition was not compatible with life outside the womb.
“They told us she was trying, and she has been fighting, but she is a very sick little baby,” Danielle shared.
The couple were given two options: continue the pregnancy or proceed with a termination for medical reasons.
“As parents, how do you make an impossible decision?” she asked.
‘She Is Wanted And Loved’
One message Danielle has repeated throughout her journey is that Maggie was deeply loved and desperately wanted.
“Termination for medical reasons does not make this process any easier,” she wrote.
“She is wanted and loved by so many people. She just wasn’t compatible with life earthside.”
Danielle explained that, based on the medical advice they received, Maggie faced overwhelming health challenges. “We are at peace with our decision,” she wrote. “Our baby girl is very sick and fighting every day.”
She also acknowledged that before this experience, termination for medical reasons was something she knew very little about.
“I hope it’s a choice you and your family never have to face.”
Choosing To Heal Out Loud
While many families experience this kind of grief privately, Danielle made the decision to share hers publicly. Not only so she could process everything herself, but to help other parents.
“I won’t be silenced into suffering alone to make anyone comfortable.
“To any mums out there facing the reality of giving birth after a late term termination for medical reasons (TFMR), I want to hold you and tell you it is the most peaceful and heart breaking thing you’ll ever have to go through, I know you think you can’t do this, but you can, and you’d do it all over again for your baby, we know this isn’t what anyone wanted.”
She says she struggled to find people openly documenting what termination for medical reasons actually looked like and what life looked like afterwards.
“I’ve never felt so alone and scared in this path,” she shared.
“I’m choosing not to sit and suffer in silence, alone, but to grieve and heal out loud because this is my real life.”
Finding Control In An Uncontrollable Situation
As Danielle prepared to birth baby Maggie, she reflected on how pregnancy and birth have repeatedly unfolded in ways she never expected.
Her first daughter was born after a cord prolapse led to a Category 1 emergency caesarean section under general anaesthetic. Bette was born unresponsive before being revived and spending time in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Following that traumatic birth, Danielle hoped she might one day have a VBAC, giving her the opportunity to experience birth differently. Instead, after Maggie’s diagnosis, she found herself preparing for labour under heartbreaking circumstances.
She has shared that after feeling like so much had been taken from her, including the future she had imagined with her daughter, the one thing she wanted to choose for herself was whether to have pain relief during labour.
“I wanted to feel like I could control my body,” she explained.
Cherishing Every Last Moment
In the days before labour, Danielle continued to share the small moments that suddenly meant everything.
Feeling Maggie kick.
Talking to her.
Making memories while she still could.
“Tomorrow, we start the process of our termination for medical reasons,” she wrote. “I’m soaking up all these little moments while we still have them. It really is the little moments.”
She admitted she was terrified.
“I am so scared to go through labour, contractions, and pushing for our sleeping angel.”
At the same time, she said she found peace in knowing Maggie would no longer have to keep fighting.
You can watch Danielle explain the process of late term termination for medical reasons in the video below.
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‘I Never Want Baby Maggie To Be Forgotten’
Following Maggie’s birth, Danielle shared some of the family’s most intimate moments together.
She described giving birth to her daughter as bringing her “sleeping angel earthside” and later shared heartbreaking tributes reflecting on everything she had dreamed of doing with her little girl.
“I wish I could have saved you,” she wrote.
“I can’t wait to hold you in my arms, and touch your skin, read you stories and sing to you, tell you all about your big sister and how much she loves you.”
For Danielle, documenting those moments wasn’t simply about processing her grief. It was a promise to her daughter.
“Documenting because we never want Baby Maggie to be forgotten,” she wrote.
“Her story is so important to our family.”
View this post on Instagram
She also hopes another family, sitting in a specialist’s office and facing an impossible decision of their own, might one day find her story.
“I know how alone I felt in these moments, and how I felt like I couldn’t survive, wishing I could see someone that had been through it, and come out the other side.”
For Danielle, sharing Maggie’s journey isn’t about inviting attention. It’s about making sure her daughter’s life is remembered, and helping another family know they don’t have to walk this heartbreaking path alone.
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