Meet Sarah
Telling my daughter’s story in an empowering way is essential to helping families understand the ethics involved in continuing a pregnancy after receiving a poor prenatal diagnosis.
Telling my story in a joyful way is essential to helping families understand the grace they’ll receive when they make the choice for life.
Sarah St. Onge
Writer
Christian, Wife, Mother, Daughter, Sister, Niece, Friend
Writer-At-Large
Pro-life Advocate
My Story
In Spring 2010, my family discovered that we would be welcoming a new addition. Fast-forward through a traumatic pregnancy where our unborn daughter was diagnosed with a lethal birth defect, to December. Our Beatrix was born on a cold, clear Winter morning, and lived with us here for almost two hours before continuing on her journey home.
In the initial months after our loss I wrote out many of my overwhelming grief feelings on a personal blog. Journaling my bereavement became a way to express feelings which could easily have taken over my life… a life which included living children and a husband who needed me.
As I journalled my loss, I met other families who had suffered the same type of loss. In the conversations we shared it became apparent that many families were having the same experience we did: an experience where our physicians did not support our decision to continue our pregnancies, but even more troubling, the decision to explore treatment options, and sometimes seek treatment, for our children after birth.
Discouraged by the blatant discrimination for babies who had been prenatally diagnosed with birth defects, I reached out to Save the 1, pro-life advocacy, and have been a regular contributor to their blog ever since. Their advocacy work for the 1% of abortion excepted children is a primary focus of mine.
In addition to writing for Save the 1, I’ve had the privilege of sharing my story and information about pro-life legislation, in regards to poor pregnancy diagnosis, with a number of other publications online and in print.
In my initial bereavement I developed a website devoted to our daughter’s disorder, Limb Body Wall Complex. We hoped families would be encouraged to continue their pregnancies after reading testimonies of our children’s lives. This project is currently being updated, but is available for viewing HERE.
The root of my passion is hope that my words can help other families to see the beauty of the child they hold, no matter what their child’s prognosis.