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