Singaporean man's wife endures 33 hours of labour to give birth to stillborn baby for research

True beauty is found in a woman's strength, as Singaporean Eugene Wee can attest. 

His wife was five months pregnant when it was determined that their child could not survive to term.

Wee and his Thai wife, Puu Kanokrat, both 37, were devastated when they found out that their unborn child - their first, suffered from chromosomal abnormalities. The pair, who got married last year, are based in Thailand. Wee is the founder of Radion International, a Christian non-profit group.

In a Facebook post on Sunday (Sept 16), Wee first wrote about how both he and his wife would not consider each other good looking: 

"At our age, we know that physical looks, like all material things, will fade. And what remains is our faith, our conviction and our love for lives."

He then shared the story of how they lost their unborn baby three weeks ago.

"The child had Trisomy 18 - a rare chromosome condition that often came with severe mental disabilities, multiple physical deformations and in most cases it was incompatible with life. Our child was all three."

Wee added that the rare condition, also known as Edward's Syndrome, affects one in 6,000 pregnancies.

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His wife's emotional pain was compounded when professors at Chiangmai University requested for Kanokrat to allow medical students to witness a detailed scan of the foetus.

"For four hours, my wife chose to stay on the ultrasound so every medical student could glean as much knowledge as they could from the foetus.

"It was painful for her. Hearing them discuss her own child's brain, the enlarged heart, the missing arms, the face, the lack of organs, etc," wrote Wee.

But an even more difficult request was to come.

After the scan, the medical faculty asked for the foetus to be "retained for future research and studies". 

This meant that Kanokrat had to go through "hours of painful labour", only to give birth to a stillborn baby.

Wee wrote that his wife bravely agreed, saying: "If my child needs to die, then it should not have to be in vain," proof perhaps, that a mother's love begins in the womb.

And despite the long and painful labour alleviated only by painkillers, she stuck through the whole process with dogged determination, despite Wee saying she could give up at any time. After 33 hours, the foetus was eventually "delivered in silence", and rushed off to be preserved. 

Wee ended his post by wishing his wife a happy birthday, calling his wife a "hero" and his inspiration "to embark on this journey to make a difference".

Wee's tribute to his wife attracted more than 700 comments and 5,000 shares on Facebook, with many expressing admiration for her strength and sacrifice.

Kanokrat's demonstration of a mother's love and strength is not a singular example. A US woman last year decided to carry her daughter afflicted with a rare birth defect to term, just so that her organs could be donated after she died. Sadly, the foetus was stillborn at 37 weeks. 

candicec@sph.com.sg