I'll just reiterate about Dr Sarah Buckley's book. I would consider it important and relevant prenatal reading, personally, and have a girlfriend who read it and felt the same (she currently pregnant with her first). It'll get your mind back on track
ETA:
When I was pregnant with Osc, I assumed all this 'routine' prenatal testing was a rite of passage, so I did it. My conscience was first alerted, however, to the pervasiveness of this mistaken belief, when I went for the blood test. The nurse at the pathology place sat me in the chair and I told her that I hated giving blood samples (despite a few years of blood donation!), and she asked if I'd been sent to her by the doctor. I said no, and that I was having it done to test for 'abnormalities' (I now use that word, in relation to babies, with trepidation) and she remarked "who's told you what to have you scared enough to have the test?". We had a chat about it, briefly, and we agreed that I realised I was in a very low risk group, to begin with, and second, that I wasn't as sure as I thought I was that I WOULD terminate if I found out. That nurse really started me on the road to thinking!
Also, since I posted the first time in your thread, I had an interesting encounter with someone. I was getting to know someone who is involved in my fire brigade, who I hadn't thought to talk to on a friendly, personal level before. He was talking about his kids, I was talking about Oscar and he revealed, in the most normal manner, that his middle child has DS. I was saying how great it was that his older and younger brother and sister could have a brother with DS because of what they have to offer, and how it was so good for that child to have 'normal' siblings, in order to facilitate integration into the mainstream world. Anyway, in this same conversation, he said that his wife refused to have diagnostic testing, even after halfway through the pregnancy when she just knew something was different from 'normal'. I was so impressed with this and it reminded me of your post and of the good Dr Buckley! The upshot here is manifold: two 'normal' kids either side, the family is challenged now and again but so happy and balanced, his wife was able to enjoy the pregnancy and knows now she can adapt to anything, and DS kids are a real blessing.
The point is, it works out quite well when you don't have diagnostic testing, whether you end up having a 'normal' child or a DS child.
Enjoy being UTD!!
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks