An Irish woman was advised by an Irish consultant to seek a termination in the UK for her child carrying a fatal foetal abnormality.

Sarah’s story (not her real name) is carried by Ellen Coyne in the Ireland Edition of the Times today. Ellen detailed the story for Newstalk Breakfast this morning.

Ellen stated that Sarah and her partner Michael (not their real names) discovered early last year when she was 12 weeks pregnant that their unborn son had Edwards’ syndrome.

The genetic condition disrupts babies’ natural development. Of those that survive to birth, about half will die within two weeks and only one in every five will live at least three months.

Sarah said that had there been any doubt or any glimmer of hope, she never would have hesitated to continue with the pregnancy but his condition was so severe that it was obvious to her that she wanted to terminate the pregnancy.

Sarah told Ellen: "There was no way I wanted to be away from my family and to be so far away from home and away from my son. I started panicking and thinking, I can't do this, I can't go to England and do this, delivering the dead baby.

"The consultant turned around and told us about foeticide, I had never heard about it. When I came back to Ireland, I was to present myself with a lack of movement. I was not supposed to tell them what I had done.

"The consultant said that if some of the staff knew what I had done, they would refuse to work on me. She said some people would even refuse to work on an induction before 37 weeks."

Ellen spoke to Newstalk Breakfast this morning about her experience and what happened in the UK and after. The consultant had denied that she advised Sarah to travel to the UK and the hospital there wouldn't carry out the procedure without a duty of care following the procedure.

After her time in the UK, Sarah said: "We were worried about how we keep him cool on the way home so the nurse told Michael to go to ASDA and get the picnic basket coolers.

"When it was time to go myself and Michael and the nurse took them and wrapped them in the aprons that they have and put them in the bottom of a white coffin that was donated and then we put him in on top so it wouldn't wet the satin.

"That night, we took him to bed with us. We read him a story. Fionn mac Cumhaill because he was a little warrior. We had a very precious time with him, even though he wasn't breathing but he was still with us. That made a huge difference."

Ellen went on to discuss the health issues she suffered following the procedure, which were almost fatal.

The show followed up by speaking to Sam Coulter Smith, former Master of the Rotunda, about the case. He had previously stated that he was aware of some incidents of women who had travelled to the UK to have partial terminations.

"This is a hugely difficult and hugely traumatic area, it creates massive emotion and huge discussion. I think we have to remember at the centre of this we've got mothers and families that have had a very difficult diagnosis.

"If a woman chooses to travel to the UK, no matter what stage of pregnancy, that's very difficult. 

"A good quality service is about access and communication and when you have to travel and sometimes make your own arrangements to travel to a situation like that, that's when things can fall between two stools.

"It's a small number of cases. 

He continued: "For them to have to make these arrangements themselves and come up with the solution and the difficulty of having to return the remains of a foetus or a baby to Ireland so that they can respectfully deal with that situation, that's really difficult for them.

"We've got to listen to those stories and put things in place to ensure that we smooth that pathway for people."

You can listen to his interview here: