The 24-year-old has two daughters (Picture: Jam Press)
A mum with a rare condition has revealed that, after doctors warned her she would never have kids, trolls accused her of being a ‘bad’ parent after she beat the odds to give birth to two daughters.
Tonje Larsen, 24, was born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) type two, a rare condition that causes progressive muscle weakness.
With just 19% lung capacity, Tonje, from Sandnes, Norway, has very little movement in her body and requires personal assistants and carers around the clock.
She and her partner Morten, 30, had always wanted children, but upon revealing their plans, doctors warned her that pregnancy would be akin to ‘suicide’ for her body.
The pair have experienced intense trolling online (Picture: Jam Press)
The pair experienced a miracle when she became pregnant with two daughters, the now-two-year-old Gulla and six-month-old Kornelie. However, they’ve experienced intense trolling online that has questioned her ability to parent them as well as her partner’s love for her.
‘People don’t want me to be a mum and don’t think I’ll be a good parent,’ Tonje said.
‘People often assume my assistants are my daughters’ mums. No one thinks I’m the mum, even though they sit on my lap and talk to me.
‘I’ve even been told: “It’s so egoistic to make disabled kids when you are disabled.”’
Before the pair conceived, doctors warned that Tonje could experience blood clots, a lack of oxygen, a lack of nutrition, infection and a permanent loss of muscle strength. But the couple knew that it was ‘now or never,’ and at the time, her health was in ‘great’ shape.
Tonje connected with other mums with the same condition online (Picture: Jam Press)
So, Tonje decided to take the plunge after she met other people with the same condition online.
‘On Facebook, there is a group with lots of mums around the world with SMA.
‘People that were more sick than me had a successful pregnancy, so I thought, if they can, I can.
‘We did genetic testing on Morten to make sure that he didn’t carry the SMA gene. We only had to try for months, and then I fell pregnant.’
During her first pregnancy, she had a ‘lot of energy’ and her lung capacity even increased, reaching 25%.
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Meanwhile, the second time around, she was ‘tired all the time.’ So tired, in fact, that she couldn’t operate her wheelchair alone. By the third trimester, she struggled to sleep on account of breathing problems.
It all turned out well in the end, though, as both of her daughters were delivered by C-section during week 33. They have no health issues, and both Tonje and Morten’s families were ‘supportive’ of their decision to conceive naturally.
All in all, the experience has taught Tonje that she wants to ‘show people that they can even when people say that they can’t.’
‘Nothing is important without the right resources and help,’ she concluded.
‘I’m proud of living a life without limits.
‘I wish people would accept that a disabled life is not a bad life. Life is what you make it.’
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The 24-year-old has just 19% lung capacity.