Photo: Liverpool Echo

Doctors recommended abortion after a 12-week scan indicated that baby Riziah would die in the womb, but her parents resisted and she is now a happy three year old.

Riziah Moazzeny was born with a rare heart condition called Heterotaxy Syndrome. It was during a 12-week scan that doctors told parents, Naomi and Farzam, that their baby would die in the womb as they identified that Riziah had developed a fluid filled sack called a Cystic Hygroma. Naomi and Farzam were encouraged to abort their baby.

Riziah’s mother, Naomi said: "When I went for my 12-week scan I was told our baby’s life would end while I was pregnant and I was offered a termination. But we told doctors that this had been our baby since we saw that blue line, and there was not a chance we were terminating this pregnancy. So, we asked all our family and friends to pray and we believed that our baby would get through this."

During the 17-week scan, doctors informed Naomi and Farzam, that Riziah’s fluid filled sack had disappeared. However, she was later diagnosed with a heart condition called Heterotaxy Syndrome, which according to Echo Liverpool, caused the left side of her heart to mirror image itself which resulted in her having two left sides of her heart.

Remarkably, Riziah was born at 37-weeks weighing 5lb 130z. At nine days old she underwent life-saving open-heart surgery and is now a healthy three year old girl who is about to begin nursery.

Mother, Naomi said: "She is the most happy and sweet little girl you will ever meet. She is such a sassy, feisty and strong little girl. We had our faith all along that she would survive. She is our little miracle".

"Always go with your gut instinct"

Baby Riziah’s story of survival has been described as "heart-warming" by SPUC Scotland Director of Communications, Michael Robinson. However, Mr Robinson cautioned that "medical professionals do not always get it right", as an increasing amount of stories have recently come to light regarding the birth of healthy babies, who had been misdiagnosed by doctors.

Earlier this year, SPUC reported on the case of Scottish mother, Lauren Webster, who was repeatedly offered an abortion over the course of her pregnancy as her unborn child was suspected of having a low chance of survival. Ms Webster resisted the medical pressure to abort, and later gave birth to a healthy baby boy as she had a "gut feeling he would survive."

Similarly, mother Natalie Halson was advised to abort her baby, Mirabelle, ten times after she was diagnosed with spina bifida, and was told by doctors that the baby would have a ‘poor quality of life.’ Ms Halson resisted the pressure from medical staff to abort and later gave birth to a healthy baby, who after a spinal operation is likely to live a happy and normal life.

Ms Halson said: "I would recommend to any parents who are advised to abort that it isn’t the only option, no matter what the hospitals try to tell them. Always go with your gut instinct; something inside told me that my baby was going to be ok- and look at her now, she’s perfect."

Medical staff can be seriously mistaken

SPUC Scotland Director of Communications, Michael Robinson added: "Research recently released in 2016 by the University of Cambridge and other institutes reveals that unborn children who are diagnosed with abnormalities in the womb sometimes have the natural ability to ‘self-correct’, and can be born without any abnormalities if they are allowed to live and develop."

"Whilst these stories of survival are truly heart-warming, they also highlight just how seriously mistaken medical staff can sometimes be and just how strongly eugenic considerations prevail in the policies of our health services. These brave parents refused to bow to medical pressure in the faith that their child would survive and deserve to live whatever their disability may be. They chose life and now their children are happy and thriving. It is devastating to think of the countless parents who have aborted their baby under the pressure from doctors. And it is devastating for disabled people that unthinking, lethal discrimination prevails to such an extent in our nation’s health policies."