One in every 1,000 pregnancies in Britain has a spine or brain defect like spina bifida. 30 years ago, actress Ruth Madeley was one of them. Despite having spina bifida herself, it is a condition she doesn't fully understand. In this programme, Ruth sets out to discover why she has it, whether it could have been prevented and what it means for her future. Ruth meets the lord campaigning for a change in the law that he says could prevent thousands of birth defects. And she discovers that a pioneering surgery could offer a different future for babies diagnosed with spina bifida, by operating on them before they are even born. She discovers how this surgery was invented, meets the families whose lives it has changed and follows the team of British surgeons preparing to perform this extraordinary foetal surgery in the UK for the very first time. But Ruth also examines attitudes in Britain today and asks whether we should change the way we see disability.

在英国，每1000名孕妇中就有一名患有脊柱或大脑缺陷，如脊柱裂。30年前，女演员鲁思-马德利就是其中之一。尽管她自己也有脊柱裂，但这是一个她并不完全了解的疾病。在这个节目中，露丝开始探索她为什么会得这种病，它是否可以被预防，以及它对她的未来意味着什么。露丝会见了为改变法律而开展活动的领主，他说这可以防止成千上万的出生缺陷。她还发现，一种开创性的手术可以为被诊断为脊柱裂的婴儿提供一个不同的未来，在他们出生前就对他们进行手术。她发现这种手术是如何发明的，会见了那些被这种手术改变了生活的家庭，并跟随英国外科医生团队准备首次在英国进行这种非凡的胎儿手术。但露丝也审视了今天英国人的态度，并询问我们是否应该改变看待残疾的方式。