31 for 21--Day 3

Myth #2: Most children with Down syndrome are born to older parents.

Truth: Most children with Down syndrome are born to women younger than 35 years old simply because younger women have more children. However, the incidence of births of children with Down syndrome increases with the age of the mother.

Woody and I were 31 when Aubrey was born.  Our chances of having a child with Down syndrome were 1 in 1000...we were lucky I guess:)

Myth #3: Down syndrome is a rare genetic disorder.

Truth: Down syndrome is the most commonly occurring genetic condition. One in every 733 live births is a child with Down syndrome, representing approximately 5,000 births per year in the United States alone. Today, more than 400,000 people in the United States have Down syndrome.

Since many people have asked about testing that we had done for Aubrey and since we are expecting again, I wanted to answer that question today.

We had a 20 week ultrasound with Aubrey that looked normal.  She was the right size and she didn't show any markers.  At a routine 35 week ultrasound, they found that she was under weight and had a short femur.  We would find out a week later at our level II ultrasound, that she was going to be small and that she had an AV Canal heart defect...these are common in children with Ds...and then we waited until she was born to find out.

When we found out that we were expecting again this summer, our first thought was not on whether or not this baby would have Down syndrome, but whether it would be healthy...we still worry about that...but doesn't every parent.    We had a level II ultrasound at 13 weeks and again at 18 weeks to check on the health of this baby.  Everything looks great so far.  We did have the blood work done as well, but discussed with the doctor that we didn't want statistical results.  He could use the results as needed to determine anything further that he would need to do, but that we will happily welcome any baby into our family again and that it doesn't matter.

I find it funny that he said, "Your chances of having another Down syndrome baby are pretty low anyway."  We have a 1 in 100 chance of being blessed again...better chances than we had to get Aubrey...