i believe in prenatal testing, regardless of the abortion rates

why a mother to a down syndrome baby believes we should all have the option to free prenatal testing, even though it leads to 9 out of 10 abortions of a down syndrome baby.

me-“why aren’t you replying?”

me-“hello….you are starting to freak me out. just answer, did you get a hold of the dr.?”

husband-“lets just talk when you get home.”

i ring my husband.

“sweetie, i wanted to wait till you were home, but i got a hold of the Dr. and he said the results came back. Its okay, but i think there is a good chance our little one will have down syndrome.”

i was in the supply room of my work. i started crying hysterically. women passed by, asked if i was alright, i just couldn’t stop crying. i left work and rushed home. and we cried together. we cried for the life we thought our baby was going to have. and the reality we thought down syndrome was.

So when asked the question-why do you recommend the testing, If you don't believe in abortion, I say this-
regardless of who you are, what a good person you are deep down, you mourn a diagnosis. Every single family I have talked to took time and just cried. Because finding out your baby is going to have Down syndrome is hard. There is a lot of unknown. Many people have that mourning time once the baby has already arrived. Because they had no testing done, so their baby is a day one Down syndrome diagnosis. I found out because of non-invasive testing (meaning no risk of hurting that baby) that Treg would have Down syndrome while he was still in utero. So I had weeks to mourn, and research and be able to know everything I could, to give Treg the best quality of life, before he even arrived. So the moment he arrived I could jut enjoy my son. Soak up every moment of his new born life. Completely love him for everything he is. Rather than spending that time mourning, crying, and fixating on my newborns diagnosis.

I flashed back to this moment after an article i read. It was about the 60 minutes special that just ran on down syndrome and non-invasive prenatal screening. Those are my results up there^^

i did the typical quad screening and had some what of a red flag. I tested rather high for down syndrome, for a woman of my age. 1 in 80 chance my baby would have down syndrome. It still left me with a big uncertainty though…logistically the dr was saying i would have a 1.25% chance my baby would have down syndrome… that still seemed like pretty slim odds. and my Dr. agreed. he said most he had seen were somewhere closer to 1 in 4 odds. So he asked me if i would like to do non-invasive testing just to give myself peace of mind. I’m a worrier. So i opted to do it. 

obviously you know how that ended.

But thats all we got. we just got results.

I wasn’t offered any knowledge on down syndrome, i wasn’t offered research on down syndrome. All i had was my perception on down syndrome. and it was just the same as everyone elses. I had little knowledge about down syndrome, and i feel ashamed to say that my opinions were grim, and narrow-minded. 

although i was offered two things- the option to keep, or abort my pregnancy,

9 in 10 women with my results abort.

The 60 minute special discusses that Doctors in australia are lobbying to make the non invasive prenatal screening free. This is concerning Down syndrome advocates due to the high abortion rate, after a positive screening. We are concerned because we get to see the life that would have been taken. The life that fills ours with so much love, joy, fulfillment, and happiness. A life that we are so truly and genuinely happy with, we want everyone to be able to get the chance to feel this way.

But i don’t think it is the testing that is causing abortions. Its 1-the worlds negative perception on people with down syndrome, and 2- the lack of knowledge readily available once you get that positive result. I don’t believe the world will change its perception anytime soon (though i will try my damnedest for my son.) but i do think it would be very possible, and very easy to have information readily available for those who receive a positive result for the screening.

It is said that knowledge is the most powerful weapon, to change the world. 

if everyone knew the facts; and then maybe the not-so-fact, like how it feels when Treg looks at me with those almond eyes, or wrinkles that little button nose, or reaches those hard to get mile stone. Those statistics might be different.