Avia Collinder, Sunday Gleaner Writer

Deborah Smith (left) and Dominique, the child she tried to abort. - Kyle Macpherson/Freelance Photographer

DEBORAH SMITH aborted her first child 19 years ago. At least that is what the records and a receipt for $1,800 show. But, almost two decades after the "painful act", daughter Dominique is alive.

"Her birth was a miracle," Smith beams as both mother and daughter shared their extraordinary story with The Sunday Gleaner.

Smith, now 35, discovered at age 14 that she was pregnant. She knew it was something her mother should not find out about.

Sent to Sunday School and Bible study by her mother, "no visions of hell" could compete with the fear Smith felt inside.

A grade-nine student at John Mills All-Age School in Kingston, Smith admits that her "experimenting" with her boyfriend landed her in trouble.

"I was afraid, mainly because of my mother who grew me up in the right way. She was a nurse and a Christian, ensuring that I went to church."

Smith's fear made her quickly decide to abort the pregnancy. "I was afraid of her finding out. I did not know what she would do."

Deborah Smith was her mother's only daughter and the only child left at home. Her two older brothers had already gone away, so a very tight bond existed between mother and daughter.

"I decided that the only thing to do was to do the abortion and go back to school. I would go on with my life. I had no intention of telling my mother. No one would know," she decided.

did procedure at nine weeks

At nine weeks into the pregnancy, with money supplied by her boyfriend who - although a student - had funds from a part-time job, she paid for and did the procedure.

"I was on this narrow bed in a cold room. It was just like doing a Pap smear," she says of the attempt to terminate the pregnancy.

In 20 minutes, she was outside with a prescription and instructions to go home.

She remembers. "I was bleeding, but not heavily."

Thinking that she was past the worst, she went back to being a teenager again. But, just a few weeks later, Smith began to experience nausea and "puffiness".

"I was sleeping a lot and I could not understand what was happening to me," she recounts. Instead of her regular menstrual flow, Smith was spotting.

She was still pregnant and "judgement day" came when her mother found out.

healthy, normal pregnancy

With a nurse's practical approach, her mother took her to the doctor and had an ultrasound done, which showed that the pregnancy was healthy and normal.

While her mother's friends suggested an abortion (not knowing that this had already been attempted), she decided that the child was to be born and kept.

"She was upset and disappointed, but she said, 'We will deal with it ... We will stick it out together'," Smith recalled. Her mother, she said, also told her what to expect. "I was just happy that she was supporting me," Smith said.

A pregnant teenager, Smith recalls her next worst experience, at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital in Kingston. "The nurses commented loudly on my age and absence from school. They heaped scorn on me."

In time, such shame-filled memories were dulled by the loving support she received from her mother, her child's father - who later became her husband - and his parents.

gives birth to daughter

On November 23, 1988, her daughter, Dominique, was born. Smith continued her studies at the Women's Centre, then Dunoon Technical, and finally, the University of the West Indies.

Today, Smith, a customer-service agent in Kingston, is the mother of two daughters and is a member of the Arlene Gardens Gospel Assembly in St Andrew, where her entire family was baptised in June 2000.

Nineteen years later, her first child has a track record of leadership that has made her mother proud.

Dominique was a prefect at Mico Practising and Junior High School, and in first form at Wolmer's Girls' School, she was deputy form captain.

Throughout high school, she was a student council representative, becoming a form captain in fifth form. By sixth form, she was president of the Inter-Schools Christian Fellowship.

nine csec subjects

She was successful in nine subjects at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate level gaining five distinctions and four credits.

Dominique was told about her 'accidental birth' while in lower sixth form in 2006. She remarks that the "stunning tale" has inspired her.

"It gives me the motivation to work harder and have a purpose here. Whatever I get myself in, I must do to the best of my ability," she told The Sunday Gleaner.

Dominique has applied to the University of the West Indies to pursue studies in the natural sciences and intends later, to do medicine. She also believes she has a special role in changing lives.

"I just love rapping with young people, and they are always coming to me with their problems," said Dominique.

She loves singing and is choir director and praise and worship coordinator at church.

"Everyone looks up to her," boasts Deborah Smith of the daughter whose birth she had attempted to abort.

avia.ustanny@gleanerjm.com