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A pregnant mother-of-two who desperately wanted a daughter jumped from a cliff-top when she discovered the twins she was carrying were boys, a coroner's court has been told.
Anna Byrne, 35, a nurse from Dunboyne, County Meath, was left 'devastated' when ultrasound scans in March this year showed she would be having two more boys.
In the months before her death she noticed baby girls everywhere and avoided her friends - particularly those with daughters.
In the early hours of March 8, six days after attending a psychiatrist complaining that she was feeling low, she jumped from a cliff-top at Howth summit, Dublin, the city's Coroner's Court was told.
Mrs Byrne was in the last days of her pregnancy and was due to give birth by caesarean section on March 29.
Her husband Terry described the final conversation the couple had before she died. He said at the inquest into her death: 'We told each other that we loved each other and she said "I'll see ya later".'
The coroner returned an open verdict because he could not say beyond reasonable doubt that the mother intended to take her own life.
Dr John Sheehan, consultant psychiatrist at the Rotunda hospital in Dublin, said he met Anna and her husband on March 2 and considered her at 'low risk' from self-harm.
The heavily-pregnant Mrs Byrne had been referred into his care by a midwife after she admitted her mood was low.
She had suffered from depression from her early 20s and her first pregnancy in 2004 ended in miscarriage.
She went on to give birth to two little boys, Joe and Aidan.
'However, she felt part of her life was missing because she had two sons and no daughter,' Dr Sheehan said.
Mrs Byrne found out 20 weeks into her third pregnancy that she was carrying boys again. She was left 'devastated' and unable to sleep for several nights.
She admitted to her GP she didn't feel maternal and also felt 'overwhelmed' at the prospect of having four boys.
'She began to notice baby girls everywhere', Dr Sheehan said.
Terry Byrne said his wife 'put on a front' to friends and family, but privately was 'drained'.
The couple had talked about flying to Greece, where they would be allowed to select the sex of their child through assisted reproduction treatment.
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