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WISH-TV evening anchor Brooke Martin was pregnant with her second child when she learned that her unborn daughter, Emma Noelle, was suffering with anencephaly, a fatal condition in which the baby’s skull does not develop.
“[My husband and I] were faced with a very tough decision at that moment,” Martin told WIBC’s Hammer and Nigel show Tuesday. “[But] we immediately made the decision to carry her to full term or as long as she lived.”
Brooke carried Emma to term, giving birth on March 15.
“[Emma] survived for 21 minutes before passing away in her father’s arms.”
Brooke opened up to Hammer and Nigel about making the decision to carry Emma to term rather than terminate the pregnancy upon learning the diagnosis.
“I was looking at her moving [on the ultrasound] as I was getting that diagnosis. It was my daughter and was not a decision for us to make.”
Brooke said the experience filled her with a tremendous amount of empathy for parents who receive a devastating diagnosis regarding the health of an unborn child.
“I understand that you are in shock; you’re in a blur; you’re getting all kinds of advice, and depending upon the hospital, you’re getting entirely different advice under similar circumstances.”
While the experience was heartbreaking and painful, Brooke says her greatest hope is that Baby Emma’s story will be a testimony to the incredible purpose and value of every life – regardless of how brief that life might have been.
Brooke is inviting the public to Emma’s Celebration of Life on Saturday, April 27 at Traders Point Christian Church in Whitestown at 10 a.m.
If your family has dealt with infant loss, Brooke and her family would love to add your child’s name to their display during the Celebration of life. Click here to submit.
Click the link below to hear Hammer and Nigel’s full interview with Brooke.
