Discovering My Unborn Child Had Down Syndrome

I was about 4 ^1/2 months pregnant when I got the news. The doctors did the Prenatal Risk Screening - you know, the blood test at 4 months to determine the levels of the proteins ( Alpha - feto protein also known as AFP ) in the mother's blood to see if there is a possibility that your unborn child has developed either Down Syndrome or Spinal Bifida.

Well, what do you know; mine came back positive for Down Syndrome. My world suddenly came crashing down on me. All the dreams I had for my son went poof. "What the hell, I'm only 22 years old" I told the doctor. He told me "these tests are not always right. Don't start freaking out yet." He says. What ever, I was freaking out.

I had to go to Orlando for an amniocentesis. (A big shot in your belly to take out the amnio fluid from the sack that the baby is in.) So, I go to Orlando and do the procedure. Easier said than done. I saw how long that needle was and I started crying right away "I don't want to do this." My fiance wouldn't even come hold my hand he was in the corner all the way across the room. Hahaha poor baby. He looked like he was going to pass-out.

Honestly it did even hurt, the needle is so skinny that you can barely feel it. When the doctor was making the mark with the tooth-pick so she knew where she going to insert the needle and draw out the amnio fluid; that hurt more than anything, and there was a little cramping when she was drawing out the amnio fluid. Then the amnio fluid was sent to the lab and the doctor told me she would call with the results in 48 hours.

I went home and I had to wait 2 days, but it really took 3 days. In the mean time I'm considering aborting the baby because in the ultrasound the doctors were saying that the baby had fluid around his heart, lungs, kidneys, and around his brain. They said "it didn't look very good."

I get a phone call three days later from the doctors clinic in Orlando. This time the results are 99.8 % positive my unborn child has Down Syndrome. They tell me that they have set up another appointment for me to go to a development specialist back in Orlando.

Now, I have only four days left and then I won't be able to get an abortion it would be to late.

So, I go knowing that going to the development specialist in Orlando will cause me to only have one day left to abort my unborn child.

They do another ultrasound and like a miracle they baby is fine, he still has Down Syndrome of-course, but all the fluid was gone! "Everything looks great" said the doctor. I was so happy.

My fiance and I spoke with the development specialist after the ultrasound and he asked us question about my fiance's family, if there was Down Syndrome that ran in the family or any mental retardation, or any other type of birth defects, the specialist asked the same thing in regards to my family. We did not have anything like that in any of our families.

He also asked if we had any other children together that had Down Syndrome. We did not have any children together at the time. This was my fiance's first child. Although, I did have one child by a previous relationship and he did not have Down Syndrome.

I asked the development specialist if the cause of Down Syndrome could be the result of my fiance being from Brazil. He said "No. The cause of Down Syndrome is the nondisjuction, or failure of one pair of chromosomes to separate evenly during meiosis."

In other words he is saying that every person has genes in every cell of the body, our blue prints; for example. The genes tell the cells how to grow. Genes come in pairs, one comes from mom and one comes from dad.

Ok, now comes the chromosomes. Genes are located on rod like bodies called chromosomes inside our cells. Usually, there would be 46 chromosomes in each cell of our bodies. Chromosomes come in 23 pairs with 1 coming from dad the sperm and 1 coming from mom the egg. One of the 23 pairs of chromosomes is created differently, and these chromosomes determine the sex.

So, what do we have now? We have 23 chromosomes from dad and we 23 chromosomes from mom. Add those together and that makes 46. Usually a person's body has 46 chromosomes.

Now, this is where it gets tricky, at the cell devision. Ok, alot of mistakes can happen during meiosis ( cell division that occurs in reproductive call egg and sperm which only one of each pair of chromosomes goes to the daughter cell and the total chromosome count in 23 ) and some mistakes result in Down Syndrome or Trisomy 21.

Down Syndrome is usually the result of the number 21 chromosome having three chromosomes instead of only having two; 1 from mom and 1 from dad. Somewhere during conception ( when the sperm meets the egg ) either the egg or the sperm gives in extra chromosome; they either get 23 from mom and 24 from dad or the other way around which results in the fertilized egg having a total of 47 chromosomes. About 95 % of babies have what this is called Nondisjunction Trisomy 21.

There are also, two other types of Down syndrome. Translocation or Mosaicism. Translocation is where there are three copies of the 21 chromosome but the extra chromosome is attached to another chromosome usually chromosome 14 or chromosome 21. About 4 % of babies have Translacation Trisomy 21.

Three to four of translocations are inherited from a parent. This is the only type of Down Syndrome that is a result of a condition of one of the parents genes. This is when the carrier parent has the typical 46 chromosomes but two of their chromosome pairs are stuck together. Which makes their chromesome count 45 instead of the normal 46.

Never the less, the parent is not affected because there is no loss or excess of genetic material; only the usual amount of chromosomes with two chromosomes stuck together. Parents like this are refered to by Doctors as a balanced carrier.

Mosaicisim is the least common form of Down Syndrome. Only 1 percent of people the with Downs has this type of Trisomy 21. This is where the chromosomes divide unevenly but in the second or third cell division, resulting in only some of the cells of the growing embryo containing an extra chromosome. As a result the baby may have fewer changes in physical appearance and higher intellectual abilities.

Four months later I had my son and he was beautiful. He looked like a sou-mo wrestler. He had tiny eyes was and really fat. He weighed 8pds, 11oz . And I have never stopped loving him.

Trust me if your reading this because you or someone you know is having or had a child with Down Syndrome and you are researching, I can relate, because that is what I did for the next year, research. After I found out I was going to be bringing a baby with Down Syndrome into the world, I wanted to be prepared. And it is completely normal to feel like you have to find out everything about Down Syndrome.

As far as the dreams that I had for my son that I thought went poof, those dreams did. But, I've created new ones!! This experience has only given me patience and the opportunity to create new dreams. My love for my child is no different than my other two children that do not have Down Syndrome.

My fiance told me one night "Talan is my special baby. I will always love him more." That was when I was pregnant with our second son. I told him "no you won't. You will love them all the same, you'll see." I asked him a couple nights ago if he still loved Talan more. He said "no, I love them all same."

Our second child is 3 months old and he does not have Down Syndrome. I was worried that he would.

My experience goes to show you that it doesn't matter, what color your are, where you are from or how old you are.

Mistakes happen, even in conception; but no matter what your child is your child and you are going to love them more than you know. And, to you they won't be a mistake that happened at the time of conception. They will be your little miracle. Most likely whats going to save you. Mine did.

Always remember be patient and never stop dreaming!

Creating New Dreams
- Sheena Howard-