October 7, 2025 // Diocese

Conference Aims to Support Families Facing Prenatal Diagnoses

Ann Carey

When an expectant couple receives a diagnosis that their unborn child has a life-limiting condition, the news is traumatic and frightening. To make matters worse, the couple is often told that abortion is their only option.

An upcoming conference at the University of Notre Dame on Saturday, October 25, will examine life-affirming options for such diagnoses and highlight the many resources and support systems available to families who have a child with a disability. Experts will also explain the latest research and testify that prenatal diagnoses – as well as predicted outcomes – are sometimes wrong.

Titled “The Changing Face of Life-Limiting Prenatal Diagnoses: Part 2, Clinical, Pastoral, and Ethical Considerations,” the daylong conference, which will be held at Geddes Hall Auditorium at Notre Dame, is a follow-up to a 2024 conference that focused on Trisomy diagnoses of conditions that include Down, Patau, and Edward syndromes.

The October 25 conference will address the entire range of brain anomalies, according to Lisa Everett, coordinator of special ministries for the Office of Life, Marriage, and Family Formation for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. The diocese is a co-sponsor of the upcoming conference, as it was for the event in 2024.

The conference is open to the public and will provide information on the latest research and ethical standards for treatment of infant anomalies. It will be of special interest to parents, health care professionals, and pastoral care personnel.

Mary O’Callaghan, a psychologist and professor at Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life, is the parent of a son with Down syndrome and was a speaker at the 2024 conference. She told Today’s Catholic that parents don’t realize that prenatal screening and diagnosis is not “wholly benevolent.” Some parents who get a prenatal diagnosis realize they may face pressure to abort, she said, but they may be unaware that “infants who receive a prenatal diagnosis are more likely to receive inadequate neonatal care compared to infants who are diagnosed after birth.”

At the conference, parents will find that the “dignity and value of their children’s lives will be recognized and affirmed,” O’Callaghan advised, and she noted that all the doctors speaking at the conference have experience treating fragile infants.

The physician speakers will be: Dr. Michael A. Egnor, professor of neurosurgery and pediatrics at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, an expert in the limitations of prenatal diagnosis of brain disorders; Dr. Glenn E. Green, a professor of otolaryngology at the University of Michigan and a specialist in pediatric airway and congenital
syndrome; and Dr. Marty McCaffrey, a specialist in neonatal-perinatal medicine and professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine at Chapel Hill.

Also speaking will be Tracy Windsor, the co-founder of Be Not Afraid, a national case management support service for expectant parents with a life-limiting prenatal diagnosis. Be Not Afraid helps parents navigate the medical system that may try to coerce parents into choosing abortion instead of offering other options and/or services to help them give their child life and be able to receive up-to-date medical care after birth. Miriam’s Blessing is a ministry within the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend that is affiliated with Be Not Afraid.

O’Callaghan noted that personal testimony from other parents who have a fragile child equips families going through the experience “with the knowledge to make fully informed decisions around prenatal care that hold the best promise for their own and their infant’s well-being.”

Offering their testimony at the conference will be Dr.
Brendan and Maureen O’Connor, who will share the story of their son Luke’s prenatal diagnosis and their journey of advocating for his life and care.

“Our wish in relating our experience with prenatal diagnosis is that other parents will feel less alone,” Maureen told Today’s Catholic. “Receiving a life-limiting prenatal diagnosis for our son was one of the most traumatic and ostracizing experiences of our lives.”

Brendan O’Connor, a radiologist, is a Notre Dame graduate. He told Today’s Catholic that “from a health care perspective, we hope health care professionals understand that it’s OK not to know what exactly the prenatal or postnatal course looks like. Just be honest with the family. Some of our most traumatic experiences were when doctors or those in the genetics field tried to fit our son, Luke, into a box, and it wasn’t correct.”

Maureen O’Connor observed that “it wasn’t until we began talking with families who had experienced the same and were supported by experts who have accompanied families on this journey that we began to feel hope for our son and our family’s future.”

The October 25 conference will bring those families and experts together to experience such hope, dignity, and respect for all human life, regardless of anomalies or disabilities.

Other co-sponsors of the conference are Notre Dame’s Office of Life and Human Dignity of the McGrath Institute, the university’s de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, Be Not Afraid, and Miriam’s Blessing. Registration for the conference is available through the diocese’s website at diocesefwsb.org/pnd-conference. Deadline for registration is Monday, October 20.