A Portal to Grace

I’m 37, pregnant and petrified. My husband and I have already had one miscarriage and don’t want to chance another. But my hormone levels have spiked and my doctor strongly recommends amniocentesis. Although it’s meant to be a safe procedure to detect genetic or chromosomal defects, amnio carries between one-in-200 and one-in-400 odds of causing miscarriage. It’s a less-than-one-percent risk, but to me it feels all too likely.

Six weeks earlier, when I saw and heard our child’s