Ellie Simmonds: Should I Have Children?

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Summary

The former Paralympic swimmer sets out to discover how attitudes towards disabled children have changed in the 30 years since her birth and what her genetic condition could mean for her as she looks forward to starting a family. She meets with expectant parents who have received a disability diagnosis for their unborn baby and learns how parents are supported when confronted with this life-changing news

Review

Gabriel Tate

For all her formidable Paralympic achievements, Ellie Simmonds’s Bafta- winning second career in documentaries is scarcely less impressive. Simmonds, now 30 and considering starting a family, is pondering the dilemmas her birth mother faced before giving her up for adoption.

The honesty is breathtaking, not just from Simmonds — who agonises over whether to talk to her birth mother about it — but also the parents she meets along the way. Megan and David, for example, worry all options feel selfish, whether they have an abortion and never find out who their child could be, or carry on with the pregnancy knowing the struggles their child could face with Down’s syndrome. Levi and Lewis terminated their second pregnancy when prenatal testing revealed their unborn son would have the most severe form of the syndrome that only mildly affects their first child.

Parental guilt and uncertainty abound; while Simmonds concedes the strides made since her own birth in accepting, accommodating and celebrating disability, her films reveal how much remains to be done and nudge the dial gently in the direction of progress.