A COUPLE from Northumberland who lost two babies to a condition that forms during pregnancy have launched a charity to highlight the condition.
Alexandra Dinsdale and Stephen McAulay had been anticipating the birth of their first daughter last year when tragedy struck and a 12-week scan revealed that Jamie Louise had the same condition as her brother Aiden, who died just six months before.
Both siblings were diagnosed in the womb with anencephaly – a fatal condition that affects the formation of the brain and skull – and the couple took the difficult decision to end both pregnancies at around the 13-week mark.
Since then the couple have been keen to raise awareness of the disorder and Alexandra has joined forces with a mother from Lincoln, whose child suffered a similar fate, to launch a charity highlighting the condition. Alexandra, 20, a technical service desk agent, from Cramlington, Northumberland, said: “It’s devastating what happened to Stephen and me.
“We had never heard of anencephaly before and we didn’t know anything about the disorder. When we were first told our son had it we were in total shock and I felt so alone.
“I didn’t want to face my family and the first time it happened I felt like it was all my fault. My family were very supportive but I wanted to be by myself.
“We were nervous about the birth of our second child but we never expected it to happen again and we began to prepare for a newborn baby.
