A pregnant woman from Shanghai battled late-stage pancreatic cancer but avoided any treatments that were toxic for the baby till she delivered in December 2015.

Battling late stage pancreatic cancer, the brave woman refused to give up on her unborn child although her road to motherhood was a complicated one. She insisted on delaying her cancer treatment until after delivering her baby. She was diagnosed with cancer when she was five months pregnant, thepaper.cn reported.

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Zhang Lijun, 26, came to know about her illness during a regular medical check up. Her doctor suggested that she immediately has her labor induced so she could undergo cancer treatment. But the mother-to-be refused to go by doctors' recommendation and chose to give birth to her unborn child despite the risks.

"I've lived for 26 years, but my child hasn't even had the chance yet," Zhang said, according to China Daily.

Since Zhang chose not to undergo any treatments that were toxic for the baby, her life got tougher. Her condition started deteriorated rapidly as the cancer grew aggressively. It started affecting the growth of the fetus. She also developed severe jaundice due to the tumor after her 28th week of pregnancy.

Finally, to speed up Zhang's delivery, and ensure the birth of a healthy baby, the hospital decided to convince her to allow the baby to be delivered. After considering her family's wishes, Zhang decided to  have the baby via a Cesarean section as soon as possible so that she could undergo cancer treatment

The baby boy, nicknamed Xiaolongbao, was born in the 30th week of Zhang's pregnancy. He weighed just a bit over one kilogram since he was born three months in advance of Zhang's original due date. Medical examination showed that Zhang's very rare and highly aggressive cancer had spread throughout her body. She was transferred from the obstetric department to the pancreatic department as Palliative treatment was the only choice left.

In the face of her inoperable Cancer, Zhang started recording videos for her child to watch in the future. She recorded 18 of them in total, and requested that the child is given one to watch on each birthday. "Agony is a process. I spend every day as my last day," said Zhang, who is currently receiving palliative care.

TagsCancer, Cancer treatment, Mother's Day, motherhood, mother, Chinese mother