Down Syndrome Births Rise Unexpectedly

From NPR (12/1/09):

Heidi Moore holds her son, Jacob, 8, at their home in Alpharetta, Georgia in 2008. Jacob has Down Syndrome but takes music therapy class, reads at an age-appropriate level and plays piano. (Jenni Girtman/AP)

Down Syndrome Births Rise Unexpectedly
By Joseph Shapiro

You might be surprised to learn there's been an increase in the number of children born with Down syndrome in recent years. The conventional wisdom holds that with more prenatal screening, the rate at which children would be born with Down syndrome would have fallen.

But as researchers write in the latest issue of the medical journal Pediatrics, there was an increase in Down syndrome births between 1979 and 2003. "It went up by 31 percent--from 9 per 10,000 births to 12 per 10,000 births," says Dr. Adolfo Correa, an epidemiologist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and co-author of the study...

>>> For the Whole Article

>>> For the Scientific Report published in Pediatrics

Comment Below: What is your reaction to this article?  After years of depressing statistics, is it a welcome ray of hope?  or is it too good to be true?  Do you think it reveals a shift in the mindset of American mothers or the triumph of our ever-improving medical care? How would you explain this new data? 

Comments

[Beth Boyle]

I would think this was a good thing except Down Syndrome people suffer so from so many heart and mental problems including very early onset Alzheimer's. I feel sad about this. These people really have a rough life and many are at the mercy of their care givers for their whole lives. They are still mistreated in our society and I don't see that ending any time soon.

[Elisabeth Ellenbogen]

Obviously, when an infant is born healthy or ill the child is a citizen with the same constitutional rights as any other person.

Why do we have more successful pregnancies, then a child with significant health issues?

We are saving lives and identifying problems with high tech medical intervention in utero. When there is a diagnosis only the mother can decide if she wishes to continue the pregnancy. However, if she is poor she may not have a choice.

Again, the new born, healthy or ill, must have full protection as a first class citizen!

[Beth Boyle]

We have a long ways to go in this country concerning protection of new borns. A long long way.