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BABY SHOWER
IS ALL PRAYERS
Charmaine Barranco Fertille, Minn. (CNS)
April and Aaron Swenby experienced both pain
and grace when they delivered their baby, Austin John, who
lived for only 11 minutes before dying in his mother’s arms.
Four months before he was born, doctors told the
Swenbys the baby had anencephaly, a neural tube birth
defect, and would not survive. The couple, parishioners at
St. Joseph Parish in Fertile, named the baby, celebrated his
life in the womb, and incorporated him into everything they
did as family.
When the couple received the baby’s diagnosis,
they were advised to immediately end the baby’s life. “They
recommended that labour be induced as soon as possible,“
April Swenby recalled, noting that the doctors “didn’t call it
abortion.”
When Austin was born they received a grace-filled
gift, said Father Bob Schreiner, rector of the Cathedral of
the Immaculate Conception in Crookston.
“They didn’t deny the pain of Good Friday,” he
told Our Northland Diocese, newspaper of the Diocese of
Crookston. “They sat in stillness with Holy Saturday, and
they experienced the power of redemption and resurrection
on Easter Sunday when Austin was born.”
April Swenby said the priest had told them their
baby “is a gift, and regardless of how long he has to live,
he’s alive.” She said in those simple words she found
strength, and the ability to persevere.
Father Schreiner researched anencephaly and
learned, “After 33 weeks there’s a danger of the baby
providing complications for the mother, and even in a
perfectly healthy child, 33 weeks is morally acceptable
because at that point the baby can live on its own, outside
the mother.”
At the 33rd week of pregnancy, therefore, it was
morally acceptable to induce labour.
A few weeks before Austin’s birth, parishioners
at St. Joseph’s hosted a shower of prayers for him. At the
gathering in the church basement, April Swenby said, she
could finally talk about her baby without crying.
“Time and lots of prayers have helped,” she said.