A brave couple explain why they terminated their pregnancy and 'freed their baby from pain'.

Mark and Jade Dodson should have their daughter Amalie Maya in their arms, but they can’t.

The brave couple from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, have opened up about their “heartbreaking” decision to terminate the pregnancy when it was discovered, at 20 weeks, that their baby had spina bifida, a neural tube defect.

Jade, 32, and Mark, 31, were told that while Amalie could survive with the condition, she would face enormous challenges.

“Ahead of the 20-week scan everything was perfect, we felt like the luckiest people in the world and we’d already found out she was going to be a girl,” Jade told Mirror Online. But further testing revealed there were serious complications with Amalie’s health.

“In Amalie’s case the Spina Bifida would most likely mean full paralysis of the legs, urinary and bowel dysfunction and learning difficulties,” Jade continued.

Explaining that although surgery involving operating on Amalie while she was still in the womb would potentially have reduced swelling on the baby’s brain and improved her chances of walking, Jade added that, “the operation also came with lots of risks for us both and nothing was guaranteed.”

Together, the couple agreed they had to “free Amalie of the inevitable pain and suffering she would have endured throughout her life”.

Jade explained it was a “very difficult decision” and their priority was to consider the best course of action for their daughter, and were devastated to think she would face so many challenges.

The couple, who have been married since 2015, were trying for a baby with assisted fertility treatments for more than two years when Jade became pregnant in August 2018.

Approximately one in 500 babies in Australia is born with a neural tube defect such as spina bifida.  Amalie was diagnosed with the most severe form of the disease, Myelomeningocele.

"At the 20-week pregnancy scan our daughter, Amalie Maya Dodson, was diagnosed with Spina Bifida; a neural tube defect that affects approximately 1 in 1,000 babies," the couple said on their Just Giving page, which was established to raise funds for spina bifida research.

"We had to make the heartbreaking decision to terminate the pregnancy in to order free Amalie of the inevitable pain and suffering she would have endured throughout her life," the couple explains on the page.

"This has by far been the most difficult thing we have ever faced. We'd like to help prevent the future suffering endured by couples, families and their babies."

The couple are aiming to raise £5,000 (approximately $9000 AUD) by completing the 'Yorkshire 3 peaks challenge'.

"Research has shown that babies are less likely to develop Spina Bifida when women take folic acid supplements before and during pregnancy. However, as we found out personally, these supplements are not always effective," the couple writes on their page.

"The aim of our Yorkshire 3 peaks challenge is to raise the much-needed funds required to provide continued research into the future prevention and treatment of Spina Bifida and other neural tube defects."

Have you ever faced a similar situation? Tell us in the comments below.

Got January-Dread at the thought of a new year in your current job? Keen to take control of your life and be your own boss? Come and join Mia Freedman for the Lady Startup Activation Plan, an online course where she personally takes you through every step and gives you every resource to go from idea to launch. Enrolments are open for just a few days. Details here.