37-Pound Woman Gives Birth

[The Straight Story]

37-Pound Woman Gives Birth

POSTED: 8:49 am EST February 10, 2006

TULARE, Calif. -- A woman who weighs 37 pounds, stands 3 feet tall and uses a wheelchair has given birth to her first child.

Eloysa Vasquez, 38, suffers from Type 3 osteogenesis imperfecta, a disorder that makes bones soft and brittle.

Her tiny, distorted body left little room for a fetus to grow and Vasquez suffered two miscarriages before doctors at Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital delivered her son, Timothy, by Cesarean section Jan. 24.

"We just took one day at a time. We had a lot of people praying for us. We just believed ... and here we have our son," Vasquez told The Fresno Bee for a story Thursday.

http://www.local6.com/family/6903029/detail.html

Amazing.

Edited to add photo:

[gkhouston]

1. wow

I hope her OI is a spontaneous mutation and not hereditary. Amazing that she managed to do this.

[KamaAina]

2. Relax. The baby doesn't have OI.

Baby Timothy weighed only 3 pounds, seven ounces because doctors had to deliver him eight weeks prematurely to protect the mother's fragile health. The child did not inherit his mother's genetic condition.

Goodness, another baby with a disability in the world? That horror would have dwarfed (sorry) Iranian nukes, cartoon riots, the Abramoff scandal, and Cheney in Plamegate combined! What a relief! :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[gkhouston]

3. that's not what I meant

my college roommate had OI. It's not a walk in the park, for the kid, or the parents.

[KamaAina]

4. No, it sure isn't, but

I'm figuring Mom and Dad, and hopefully a genetic counselor, had a heart-to-heart about the possibility well beforehand (she had miscarried twice previously).

Moms with disabilities much less significant than OI get harassed all the time by ignorant "typicals": "Why would you bring more people like that into the world?" and so on. I had worried I might have uncovered such a "typical" and am pleased to discover otherwise. :hi:

[lastliberalintexas]

7. My question would be why she feels the need

to potentially harm herself that way, when there are so many children begging to be adopted in this country. No, I don't have the right to prevent anyone from undergoing a risky pregnancy if she chooses, or spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a pregnancy by more artificial means- and I would never dream of trying to stop them from doing so. But I do have the right to question why they go through that when a much easier option is available to them.

But then I also feel that way about people who think that they are repopulating the earth and choose to have enough kids for a football team. I am a pessimist of the limited resources school and believe that overpopulation is the single most important issue facing humankind today, so maybe I read too much into these Dying to Give Birth to My Own Child because Adoption Ain't Truly an Option stories. :shrug:

[KamaAina]

8. Adoption agencies would be just as clueless as anyone else

I can hear it now: "But do you really think you'd be able to take care of the child? I mean, being so small, and in a wheelchair and all. How are you going to lift him to change his diapers?" and so on ad nauseam :puke:

[gkhouston]

10. yup.

she's used to hospitals, and doctors, and broken bones. That, she can manage. But convincing an adoption agency that she can manage a child might not be so easy.

[lastliberalintexas]

12. Oh, you're certainly correct about that

Which is why I used the phrase "Adoption Ain't Truly an Option" in my post. There are so many ridiculous reasons that people are turned down by adoption agencies and state child welfare offices, not to mention the cost of adoption is fairly high too. I'd love to see the adoption laws reformed so that parents of all kinds, races, orientations, incomes, etc. could be united with children dying for the love and security of a family. Maybe I'm not such a pessimist after all. ;)

[FreedomAngel82]

17. I'm glad the baby is doing well

How come it doesn't get passed down? Is it just something that happens person by person?

[medeak]

5. Faux news carried this all day

rather than covering all the administrative scandals today

[buff2]

6. Oh that poor woman.....

That's a shame she is in that condition,but thank goodness the baby is alright.

[adriennui]

9. my only question is

why? what is the point and does she have an extended family to help.


i just don't understand.

[gkhouston]

11. why does anyone have a child?

Don't assume that because she's small and in a wheelchair that she is helpless.

[pitohui]

14. well i do understand but we're supposed to pretend we don't

in this wicked world a woman is of no value unless she can pop out a baby so to validate herself even at great risk to her health and even her life she feels compelled to pop out a baby and prove she is a real woman :sarcasm:

i am sooooo not heart-warmed by stories like this

more "proof" that a woman can only be fulfilled by spawning

more pressure on other women who don't care to risk their health and their lives in this manner

at one time it was illegal to get an abortion in this country even to save the life of the mother, one day no doubt it will be illegal again

so let's try to pump people up w. crap stories like this

fine if she wants to do this, NOT FINE to publicize it in the national media as something good and happy and wonderful, esp. at a time when abortion options are shutting down for american women

[adriennui]

19. we're supposed to be happy for her and the baby

quite frankly, it's pathetic. there are some practical issues that aren't sweet and cuddly.

[B Calm]

13. At first I thought Ann Coulter had a baby..

[pitohui]

15. i figured a braindead anorexic when i saw the headline

same difference i guess :-)

[FreedomAngel82]

18. Aw

This lady is probably ten times better than Coulter. Blech.

[FreedomAngel82]

16. How sweet!

Yay! Cute baby.