Im 37, What Is The Likelyhood Of Me Giving Birth To A Child With Downs Syndrome?

[Nay37]

Im 37, what is the likelyhood of me giving birth to a child with Downs Syndrome?

[woofgang]

If you want to ask for my comment to be removed as well MM, please do feel free :-)

[Sqad]

yogasun...LOL...I can't think of a better explanation.

[rockyracoon]

That they can't woofy. I know age is a factor, but of the three people who I have known to have Downs babies, one was mid thirties, one early twenties and the other a teen mother.

Nay, the one thing I did learn when being pregnant was that everything you read frits the life out of you, when pregnant with my daughter it was horrendous, scans, scans and more scans which told me they couldn't be sure about anything, the last scan at 40 weeks told me she'd be a small baby, she was born 3 days later at 8lb 5oz!

[rockyracoon]

Chap, I've no idea lol.

Mamya as ever has hit the nail on the head :)

[daffy654]

My daughter was offered an amnio when she was pregnant and she was only 20 at the time. My advice to her was to think about what she would do if told she was having a baby with downs syndrome (hate the term 'downs baby'), if she would continue the pregnancy with that diagnosis then the amniocentesis was pointless.

[rockyracoon]

That's the reason I didn't opt to take it, the result was meaningless so the risk of miscarriage seemed far greater to me.

[chaptazbru]

That's how I feel. I will adore this baby no matter what.

[Mamyalynne]

apologies Daffy - when you use the term a lot (as in family) it does get shortened and the 'syndrome' gets dropped.

[Mamyalynne]

Exactly.

[rockyracoon]

Chap... :0) xx

[chaptazbru]

Thank you rocky x

[Sqad]

Well.....not sure that this is a relevant factor to you women but.....Nay's BF doesn't want another child.........

[Sharingan]

http://www.wolfson.qmul.ac.uk/epm/screening/calcrisk.html

That link gives a year by year breakdown of incidence.
My cousin is downs syndrome born to a 28 year old mother but my mother had 2 sets of twins in her 40's both sets of which are 'normal'.

[Mamyalynne]

Very relevant Sqad, thank you.

[daffy654]

No apology needed mamy, it's just that the condition doesn't define the child, the child 'has' a condition. I can get quite vocal on the subject sometimes. lol :)

[Mamyalynne]

Understood and know what you mean.

[atalanta]

I faced this exact problem a few years ago. What made the difference for me was the fact that I already had 2 healthy children. I had to imagine bringing into the world a baby which would take all my care away from the other two, possibly leaving me exhausted and them neglected. And, of course, after my lifetime, they would have had a burden to bear for the rest of their lifetimes.
I took the test, and the baby went into spasm. Presumably the needle touched him. From then on, I dreaded what might have happened to him. But he was born healthy and unmarked. However, these days there are other tests less invasive and almost as useful as amniocentesis. You can have a nuchal measurement done by ultrasound, which should be informative.

[bednobs]

if you want more answers - speak to these wonderful people http://www.arc-uk.org/
Nowadays they do the NT scan at 12 weeks, and adding in some other factors (age, history of bleeding and so on) and come up with a "number" for you. With my 11 month old the chances were 1 in 100 (i was 37). The chances of misscarriage at my hospital from amnio were also 1 in 100. If you come back as a high risk, they then look for "soft" signs (ie increased echogenicity of the bowel on ultrasound; heart problems). T my hospital they will do the amnio just for information (ie if you wouldn't abort, but need time to prepare) but not till past 24 weeks