They later found their daughter had a port wine stain, which grew bigger and darker.

Even though the birthmark did not pose any health issues to their daughter, Chiu recalls that discrimination was rampant.

She says some young children would call her daughter names, while she and her husband were not spared either.

Chiu would get accused of not following Chinese superstitions for pregnant women, such as avoiding painting – which she said she did avoid, lest she worry her elders – or of having committed bad deeds in a previous life.

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She recalls two women in front of her in the supermarket saying: “The daughter has such a large birthmark, it must be because the mother did bad things in her past life and now the retribution is on her daughter.”

Chiu says one of the women even tried to touch her daughter, which she managed to stop in time.

She was also asked to swap a playgroup slot her daughter was enrolled in because parents were worried about their children being scared.

Chiu, who was 35 when she had her first child, says that she was not alone in receiving such comments.

She notices the pressure also felt by other mothers she has met.

“Some people will easily blame the mother for anything that happens to her child, such as how she did bad deeds and how it was her fault to have had such a late pregnancy,” Chiu says.

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While the negative comments were hurtful, rather than letting herself be beaten down, the former news reporter and anchor proactively researched ways to help her daughter.

They consulted six doctors, who offered different opinions.

The family eventually adopted the advice that the birthmark would not fade with time, and it would be better to use laser treatment to remove it earlier so as not to affect the child’s confidence.

Experts also cautioned that, as she grew older, she might become resistant to the removal procedure.

So the treatment began for her daughter at four months old, and was completed after nine rounds over four years.

Her daughter no longer had to live with the discrimination of the birthmark, so much so that now, at the age of 11, she cannot remember ever having it.

After the episode, things looked to be turning around for Chiu’s family, but there is also a saying that being a mother does not get easier.

That was the case for Chiu, who described her later pregnancy with twin boys as a “horrifying” experience.

“One day, my tummy felt bloated, as though it was going to burst,” she recalls of the time when she was 4½ months pregnant.

The doctors later diagnosed her with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, a complication of disproportionate blood supply, resulting in high morbidity and mortality. It has been estimated to affect one to three in every 10,000 births.

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With one baby not getting heavier after two weeks while the other was getting too many nutrients, doctors suggested she terminate the pregnancy, as it posed a danger to her health, or that one of the babies be eliminated so the other could develop better.

As a mother, Chiu was faced with a tough decision, but she and her husband decided to keep both children, despite one possibly suffering from brain damage.

Chiu underwent laser therapy, which blocked the vessels that allow the exchange of blood between fetuses.

While the surgery was successful, the smaller fetus was still not growing.

But Chiu and her husband persevered with another laser therapy, which carried risks to the mother, as well as early delivery.

With the baby finally growing, there was still a dark cloud lingering in their minds as they did not know for sure whether the underdeveloped fetus would suffer brain damage.

They finally got the good news when she went for an MRI while nine months pregnant and the twins, now 8, have turned out healthy.

While Chiu faced several difficult ordeals in her motherhood, she says she was thankful that her husband, who is a lawyer, always supported her decisions. While her family might not necessary agree with her decisions, she said they were respectful, which meant the journey was smoother.

Chiu, who spent more than 10 years as a reporter, also says her training helped to deal with her daughter’s birthmark and the sons’ syndrome.

“Working in the news industry made me independent and physically and mentally tough,” she says.

“It also taught me to believe in research, to strive to find information, and have a critical mind.”

While she had to give up on the job she loved 14 years ago due to the high pressure and frequent travelling, Chiu has continued working and is now a senior lecturer and associate head at the journalism school in Baptist University.

She has a domestic worker to help her with chores and taking care of her children, and she wants to give back to society, training those who want to get into the news industry.

Though all the obstacles she faced have helped make her a better mother, Chiu feels she still has plenty to learn and that being a working mother actually helps her to connect with her children better.

“I deal with young people every day in my job,” she says.

“Meeting them allows me to become more upbeat and have less of a generation gap with my children, so I can understand why they think in a particular way.”

Chiu is publishing a book of her experiences in motherhood, titled Becoming a “Bon” Mother, to be launched at the Hong Kong Book Fair in July.