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Grey’s Anatomy’s Caterina Scorsone Talks About the Moment She Learned of Daughter’s Down Syndrome Diagnosis

Grey's Anatomy's Caterina Scorsone Was Sent 'Into a Tailspin' When She Learned of Daughter's Down Syndrome Diagnosis
Caterina Scorsone and her daughter, Paloma. Courtesy Caterina Scorsone/Instagram

Speaking her truth. Caterina Scorsone was sent “into a tailspin” when she found out her now 2-year-old daughter, Paloma, was diagnosed with Down syndrome.

Related: 'Grey's Anatomy' Behind the Scenes Drama: A Timeline

“My whole concept of what motherhood was had to shift,” the Grey’s Anatomy star, 37, said on the Thursday, March 27, episode of the “Motherly” podcast. “When Pippa was born, and I realized that she had Down syndrome and she was going to have some physical differences and some cognitive differences … I didn’t know what her capacity would be. It really did send me into a tailspin.”

She added: “How do I mother this child? If my job is not to equip her to compete and dominate socially, or educationally, or physically or economically … what is a mother? What is my job?”

Related: Celebrity Babies of 2019: See Which Stars Gave Birth

While her initial reaction to her daughter’s diagnosis felt like a “tempest in a teacup,” the actress realized her job was to “keep [Paloma] safe … and make her feel loved.”

This realization about parenting led Scorsone to look deeper into the way she parents her elder daughter.

“I loved Eliza so much because she was so clever, and she was so beautiful and she was so funny … but all those things were external qualities,” the Private Practice alum said. “It forced me to realize that I was loving my other daughter and everyone, including myself, for absolutely the wrong reason. I was loving people for their external qualities and not for their essence.”

Paloma was born in 2016, joining older sister, Eliza, 6, who Scorsone shares with her husband, Rob Giles.

Related: Stars' Best Parenting Advice

The two-time mom announced Paloma’s birth on Instagram with an “I Voted” sticker on her infant’s onesie. “I’m with her. Introducing Paloma Michaela Giles. The future is female,” she wrote at the time.

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