I didn’t know I was pregnant

When Taina Grech noticed that her mentally disabled sister-in-law was gaining unexplained weight she worried something might be wrong and took her to a doctor. Nothing could prepare her for what she was about to hear – that her sister-in-law, Corinne, was eight months pregnant with a child who, it later emerged, was also disabled. “I couldn’t believe it when they did the ultrasound and there was a fully grown baby. It was a huge shock that changed our family dynamics. January we found out she’s pregnant. In February Mariah was born… As it happened Corinne met a boyfriend, they were in love and she became pregnant without even knowing it,” Ms Grech recalls. Baby Mariah suffers from global developmental delay and has a missing chromosome. She is developing slowly and, although she is 13 months old, she is only as developed as a six-month-old child. The family still do not know what the implications of the missing chromosome are as tests are still being carried out. They are hoping that the genetic origin will be traced to the mother since the father wants to remain out of their lives. All this has placed enormous emotional and financial stress on Ms Grech and her family. Ms Grech,...