Mom who embraced baby's life despite life-limiting diagnosis now helps others do the same

When Brittany Hunt was studying to become a nurse, she had no intention of working with pregnant patients — but today, her entire career is focused on helping women who are facing life-limiting prenatal diagnoses for their babies.

All of this came about because of her own daughter, Charis Ann.

Key Takeaways:

• Brittany Hunt learned that her daughter, Charis Ann, had anencephaly at 20 weeks gestation.

• Doctors advised Hunt to have an abortion, predicting that Charis would die before or shortly after birth.

• Hunt refused an abortion and welcomed Charis, who died shortly after birth and made a lasting impact on Hunt's life.

• After becoming trained as a parent care coordinator with Be Not Afraid, Hunt now serves other families who are living through prenatal diagnoses for their own children.

The Details:

While in nursing school, Brittany Hunt was passionate about working in geriatric care. As she completed her rotation in obstetrics, she thought, "This is not for me." She pointed to one specific clinical day when she and other students walked into a hospital room in which a baby had died.

"I remember thinking, 'I don't think I could handle, in my heart, facing the death of a baby," she told Live Action News.

Then, happily pregnant with her first child, she went to her 20-week anatomy ultrasound and learned the "exciting news" that she was having a baby girl. Just minutes later, her happiness was overcome by shock, fear, and pain.

"It became apparent that there was something very wrong," she explained. "She was diagnosed with anencephaly." Anencephaly is a neural tube condition in which the scalp, skull, and brain don't form properly. Most babies born with the condition die shortly after birth or during birth itself.

Doctors immediately presented abortion as her "best option." Hunt told Live Action News:

"It was a pretty traumatic experience for sure. Even though at that appointment I had calmly and with clarity expressed that abortion was not an option for me, it was met with disappointment.

I was told all the reasons why this choice [to carry my baby] would not be good for my mental health and most certainly would mean I would take antidepressants. As if ending my daughter's life would be less traumatic, and I could just move on without any consequences."

The truth is that women who carry their babies to term following life-limiting diagnoses report better mental health outcomes than women who choose abortion.

A study from Duke University found that women who abort after “incompatible with life” diagnoses report “significantly more despair, avoidance, and depression than women who continued the pregnancy.” The same study showed that women who carry their babies to term report feeling more emotionally prepared for their child’s death, and ultimately experience a sense of gratitude and peace surrounding their child’s life.

A previous study found that nearly 17% of women who aborted “wanted” babies because of prenatal diagnoses were diagnosed with psychiatric disorders (such as post-traumatic stress, anxiety, or depression) within 14 months of their abortions.

Yet women are frequently told that abortion is their best option, and that a baby (especially one with special needs) will ruin their marriage and their finances. They are also often rushed into making a decision.

One study also found that most abortions due to a fetal diagnosis occur within 72 hours of receiving the diagnosis — just three days. And Hunt wasn't going to give in to that pressure.

"[My daughter] was viewed as a hopeless case, not a real living person worthy of life. She was seen as worthy of elimination," Hunt explained, adding:

"Her fate for dying in my womb was sealed before even being close to meeting her, and any hope I had to meet her alive was squelched. I felt like I was being reasonable medically, and I understood the gravity of her condition, but the lack of research-based, trauma-informed support made for a lonely journey carrying her for the following months."

In June 2019, Charis (meaning Grace) Ann was born alive.

Hunt recalled:

"She was beautiful. Looking back, I remember the feeling of shock after labor when she was immediately placed on my chest alive, and I heard her sweet little voice. None of the medical providers had attended the live birth of a baby with anencephaly, because the sad truth is, they are usually aborted."

Charis lived for an hour and a half after her birth. If her mother had listened to the doctors and had an abortion, she would have been robbed of that time with her, and Charis would have been robbed of the opportunity to be held and loved by her mother.

Zoom In:

"My sweet daughter's life and her death profoundly changed the course of my life and career," Hunt told Live Action News. "I began volunteering at a local pregnancy resource center, which led to working on staff in a variety of roles and eventually developing a perinatal bereavement ministry."

In 2024, she traveled to Washington, D.C., to a Celebrate Life Conference. It was there that she heard Be Not Afraid (BNA) founder Tracy Winsor speak about her work serving families whose preborn babies receive a prenatal diagnosis.

"I sat at the table with tears streaming down my face as I listened to Tracy talk about families with a baby with a prenatal diagnosis. Everything she was saying was so right about their unique model of care and how I wish I could have experienced that in my life," said Hunt.

She approached Winsor, thanked her, and told her about Charis. Winsor handed her a card, and told her she should consider completing the parent care coordinator training with Be Not Afraid. Hunt decided to do so, and as a result, has been able to add prenatal diagnosis support to the list of services offered at the pregnancy center.

Hunt said:

"These babies deserve to be treated the same as other babies, including at birth. And their parents deserve trauma-informed support. BNA's model of care is research-based, life-affirming, trauma-informed care that addresses the needs of parents. I'm just so grateful to the Lord for their parent care coordinator training; it continues to equip me with the tools to serve these families."

She has now found herself traveling well beyond her local community.

The week before Easter, she was at the Heartbeat International Conference in Ohio, and had plans to travel to Georgia to visit a mom she was serving. But as the conference was concluding, she received a call from a parent care coordinator she was co-serving a family with in California. A family would be delivering their baby over Easter weekend, and they needed in-person support.

This baby, Rosa, had anencephaly, just like Charis. Hunt recalled:

"I was getting ready to head to Georgia, and that night I barely slept, just trying to think about everything. Thinking about the family and the logistics of going to Georgia and then California, and what if I booked a flight, it’s cancelled, and then didn't make it to the birth?

I also couldn't stop thinking about what Jesus had done that week [Holy Week], and I saw him carrying the cross. And if He endured the Way of the Cross, surely I could pack up my car and head to California."

So she decided to go and let God work out the details. While in Georgia, she briefly met with Tracy, Winsor who, while hugging her, prayed "the most beautiful prayer" with her, and handed her a prayer card of St. Veronica:

"I sat in my car reading it, and it speaks of how Veronica served Jesus on the way to Calvary by wiping his face with the towel where His sacred image appeared, and it's a prayer for my ability to see His image in others and feel that same compassion for Him. 'Show me how to wipe their faces, heal their wounds, as I do this for them, I do this for Him.'

I wept at the thought because of all the precious little ones that Tracy and her co-founders have welcomed — hundreds of babies through BNA through the years, and Tracy specifically has had her own losses of Thomas and Gabriel, and is currently battling breast cancer, but has continued to serve families for so many years and was serving me in that moment. She is the ultimate example of St. Veronica to me."

Hunt left for California with no place to stay the first night, but she put it in God's hands.

As she tried to book one rental home after another, they were denied, but finally she had one accepted: Rosa's Cottage. The owners warned her that they didn't have much time to get the home prepared once the current client left, and when she arrived, the owner, Rosa, was inside arranging fresh roses. Hunt and Rosa spoke for a few hours and prayed together.

"She said, 'I'm so thankful you came.' And I said, 'You have no idea what this means to me. I came here because of a Rosa, and here is another Rosa. That story became really precious to the family I was serving as well."

On Easter Sunday, Hunt was there to help welcome Baby Rosa, who was born alive. She brought along a hat for the baby, handmade by women who knit hats with ties for babies with anencephaly.

"It's so important to me; it’s worth driving from coast to coast if necessary," Hunt noted. "What a privilege and sacred space it is to be present with families during this time. These children are precious gifts from the Lord and should be treated as such for sure. And these parents deserve the support BNA teaches. Every parent walking through the traumatic prenatal diagnosis of a child deserves support, and every child deserves to be welcomed."

The Bottom Line:

"Some days, it feels like yesterday [Since Charis died], and other days it feels like many years ago, and sometimes it's like a different person experienced that," she said, adding:

"I look back on that entire experience with thankfulness to God because He was very much present with me and never left me, even though it was a lonely journey for a lot of different reasons. I miss her every day, but her life has been a huge blessing to mine and has changed mine so dramatically in the course of my work.

So every time I go to California or Georgia or serve a family in Tennessee or go to coffee with a bereaved parent, I am there because of Charis. ... I wouldn't otherwise have been able to serve these families in a deep way that my heart understands. I think that's what we're called to do, offer up our sorrows to Him, turn what we felt was meant to destroy us at that time, and turn it into something beautiful."

In 2021, Hunt welcomed her second daughter, Joy. Joy knows about her big sister Charis, and she makes gifts for the children of the families her mother serves.

"I am so thankful for Joy, and I so miss Charis every day, but I’ve learned what it is to walk with both of those feelings hand in hand and offer that up to the Lord, and it's a beautiful thing."