Mummy, How Can We Help James?

Nicole Marsh, 37, was devastated by her son’s diagnosis. But then her two little girls came up with an ingenious way to help...

- Kim Willis & Sarah Holmes

Arriving home for the first time with my newborn son James cradled in my arms, my identical twin girls, Finley and Isabella, then three, crowded around him excitedly. Tickling his feet and kissing his head, they couldn’t get enough of him, and in that moment I was so glad my baby boy had his big sisters to look after him.

It was April 2010 and James was just a day old. With the same shock of blond hair and gorgeous blue eyes, he looked just like his sisters. But when he was born, and I first held him in my arms, that familiar warmth of maternal love washing over me, I noticed something else – his eyes were almond-shaped. I remembered reading that could be an indicator of Down’s syndrome, and when I pointed it out to the midwife, she agreed to make an appointment for us to see the paediatrician.

The next day my husband John and I went down to the special baby care unit, where a blood test confirmed what I thought. Although we were shocked, we didn’t feel sad – our baby was happy and healthy, and that’s all we could ask for. But the doctors treated us like we were grieving parents, and bombarded us with doom-filled pamphlets that only spoke about the hardest parts of having a baby with Down’s.

By the time we were discharged later that evening, I was feeling a little bewildered. But, back home, seeing how delighted the girls were to have James with them lifted my heart. To them, he was simply their perfect baby brother.