Risk of Downs Syndrome

[Heaven]

Ok so I have read 2 things but I can't see how they go together, can someone please explain??

1- The majority of DS babies are born to younger women.
2- You are at a higher risk of having a DS baby if you are older.

What the?

[Muppity]

Younger women are less likely to have the tests.

[Nicambhar]

My dr explained this one to me as I was confused at how this can be. Younger woman seem to have more babies than older woman so therefore more chances to have a DS bubs. Make sense..

[satya]

Basically most women having babies are in their twenties and early thirties therefore they have most of the babies with downs syndrome even though their risk factors are lower. They are also more likely (particularly those in their 20's) not to bother with the testing as they often don't realise they are still at risk.

Older mothers (over 35) are more at risk due to older eggs but they are also more likely to have the scans and amnios as they know they are at a higher risk. New research shows that women over 35 who have partners under 25 (like me) have half the Downs risk of those over 35 who have similar aged partners, even though most doctors have never heard of this research and don't take it into account.

The other interesting thing is that most women who get a high combined risk NT result will not have a DS baby, yet having a good result does not mean you wont have a baby without DS (although it seems to me a lot of people seem to think it does).

Regardless of all the testing available, even if you've had an amnio or CVS which shows no abnormalities you can still get a surprise on the birth day and have a DS bub.

It's all very complicated.

[Smoke Jaguar]

If this is of concern, I would definitely recommend reading Dr Sarah Buckley's book Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering, no matter what parenting orientation you take.
It has a couple of really good discussions about prenatal diagnostic testing, with much reference to research about not only incidence of DS and other congenital 'abnormalities', but also quality of life studies of the mothers of these kids. It's an awesome read that serves to really get you at peace with whatever's going on If your local library doesn't have it, you can request it, and your local ABA group might even have it in their library.

[Mother Goose]

My Ob also told me the high incidence of babies being born with down's to younger mothers is because they decline testing with the belief that they are not "high risk" and so it is not detected and the pregnancy is not terminated if a positive result returns.