THE MANAGER of a Pwllheli supermarket and his wife have spoken of their heartbreaking decision to terminate a pregnancy after doctors informed them that the baby wouldn’t survive the delivery.

Adam Pratt, 44, and Anthea Jones, 37, decided to end their pregnancy at 24 weeks after doctors informed them that their baby boy, Blake, had developed arthrogryposis, a type of disease that affects the joints and stops the baby moving normally and leaves them stuck in the same position.

The couple, who already have two children, 14-year-old Aaliyah and seven-year-old Cherry, said they discovered their little boy had the disease during their 21-week scan and they were sent to Liverpool Women’s Hospital to speak with a specialist.

Anthea said: “We already made the decision that we wanted to see him and spend some time with him to say goodbye, if we hadn’t have done that we would have regretted it.

“It was just devastating, my heart felt it had been torn out and stamped on the floor – I will never forget his beautiful face.”

Anthea, who works as an appointment clerk at Ysbyty Alltwen in Porthmadog, said: “During the scans we discovered that Blake had clubbed feet, which is a congenital deformity and he also had a clenched fist.

“At the time we thought to ourselves that once Blake was born it may be difficult for a while with his condition but we’d get through it. We weren’t prepared at all for what happened next.

“When we were sent to Liverpool Women’s Hospital I was taken for another scan and we waited for an hour and half afterwards in a waiting room only then to hear the devastating news from the doctor that my baby had no chance of surviving the delivery with his condition.

“We were just heartbroken and made the painfully difficult decision of putting our baby to sleep.”

A few days later the couple returned to Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor where Anthea delivered baby Blake and the couple said their goodbyes.

The heartbroken mum added: “I had taken medication to put Blake to sleep two days before I had to give birth to him – the whole situation was very surreal.

“When you think of the delivery room you think of it all filled with congratulations cards and balloons but this was a completely difference experience.

“After Blake was delivered everything was so quiet, there was no crying, just silence.

The couple say they still haven’t received closure as they are still awaiting post-mortem results for Blake to determine the circumstances surrounding his condition which forced them to make the termination.

Adam, who is store manager of Pwllheli Co-op, said their pain of losing Blake was eased slightly by the help of the charity, 4Louis, which provides bereaved families with memory boxes which contains items such as a clay impression kit to capture impressions of the baby’s feet and hands.

Adam added: “If it wasn’t for this charity we would have left the hospital with nothing that day, they provided us with the memory box which allowed us to have something to remember Blake by.

“We received a life certificate which was really special to us because as Blake was born before 25 weeks we weren’t able to receive a death certificate.

“It is a wonderful charity which doesn’t get enough recognition, we’re so grateful to them for the memory box so we had something to leave with that day.”

To thank the charity Adam organised a recent fundraiser at the Co-op in Pwllheli where his fellow staff members dressed in Hallowe’en costumes and raised £400 towards 4Louis.