Birth Photos Capture The Moment A Mother Realized Her Baby Has Down Syndrome

A new mother realized almost immediately after birth that her newborn has Down Syndrome and the exact moment she noticed was caught on camera.

It wasn't Amber Rojas' first child. She already had 4 kids (2 boys and 2 girls). The new baby was her fifth. Instead of a birth shower, they decided to have a birth photographer document the birth. 

Amber's prenatal care and ultrasounds had not detected any issues with the baby whose sex they decided not to find out until the birth. When the first signs of labor started at 2 a.m. a week or so before her due date, the Rojas family bundled everyone into the car so they could be together at the birthing center Amber had used for her previous deliveries. A few hours later, Amber gave birth but soon realized that something was wrong.

Amber says: "It was like this thing came over me and I could not help it, my body was pushing the baby out. And next thing I knew she was out and in my arms."

She continued: "When I picked her up out of the water I could literally see it, I could see it in her face. I looked down and was like ‘oh my gosh our baby has Down syndrome’."

Amber was "super excited" that the baby, who has been named Amadeus Reign Rojas, aka Ami, was also a girl because her last baby had been a girl and she "was so grateful it was another girl so they could grow up together." But she was worried that no one wanted to confirm what she suspected, that her baby had Down Syndrome.

A midwife eventually let her know that they should take Ami to the hospital for further evaluation.

Amber said: "She said I don’t want you to be worried, but your daughter has some soft markers for Down syndrome, and when she said it, I knew in my head that I knew it. Another reason they also brought it up is that she had a low resting heart rate."

About half of babies with Down syndrome are born with a heart defect that may or may not need surgical repair. The low resting heart rate suggested that Ami might be one of them. After a series of tests at the hospital, it was determined that Ami did indeed have a heart problem, and that she needed the surgery sometime in the next few months.

Since the baby was born last September, Amber and Ami have spent a lot of time in the hospital. Ami finally had her open-heart surgery in February to repair the cardiac defect and she's much better now.