Near the end of her first trimester, Miller went to see her longtime
Near the end of her first trimester, Miller went to see her longtime ob-gyn, who told me what she told Lauren: “There was a discrepancy between the two fetuses.” An ultrasound revealed that they were growing at different paces. In a follow-up visit, Miller learned that the smaller baby had two large fluid-filled sacs near the brain. Blood tests showed that her son had Trisomy 18, a rare genetic condition in which, research indicates, there is only a five-per-cent chance of survival to full term. Miller sought opinions from, in addition to her ob-gyn, a maternal-fetal expert and a genetic counsellor. The doctors all said that the twin she called Baby B would very likely die, Miller recalled in a recent interview—and that it was just a matter of how soon. “Every day that he continued to develop,” she said doctors told her, “he was putting his twin and myself at higher risk.”