Nur eine Handvoll Leben (2016)

Annette Winterhoff is 22 weeks pregnant when, during another examination, she learns that something is wrong with the baby. Its head is too small, and its PAPP-A level is said to be too low. The doctors suspect trisomy 18, which is confirmed by an amniocentesis that Annette agrees to only reluctantly. Julia, the teenage daughter from Annette’s first marriage, wants to live with her father, but he plans to move in with his girlfriend and, because of what Julia says next, wants to send her to boarding school. When Julia finds the ultrasound picture, she sets it on fire. But when she learns that the baby has trisomy, she feels guilty. Together with her younger sister Eva, she buries the tin containing the picture in the woods. Thomas wants an abortion, which for legal reasons must take place before the 24th week of pregnancy, but Annette cannot come to terms with it. In the end, however, she goes to the clinic to have the baby aborted, using her husband’s forged signature. But when she hears the unborn baby’s heartbeat through a stethoscope, she changes her mind and leaves the clinic. Annette and Thomas discuss with the doctors what should happen next. Since the baby has, among other things, very severe heart defects, it will live for only a few days if it survives birth. On Eva’s birthday, Annette goes into labor. Annette and Julia leave the birthday party. Julia stays with her mother at the clinic until her father arrives and takes over. He supports Annette during the birth, and she delivers the baby girl alive. Eva had discussed with Thomas that the baby should be baptized. So she is baptized and named Claire. Just a few days later, Claire dies, and her parents hold her in their arms.