What are the odds that a young person will have a baby with downs?

[dkf]

I thought that was connected to the age of the mother?

[Suich]

1. Good question.

I have no idea.

[LeftishBrit]

2. It is linked to age

At 20: 1 in 1500

At 45: 1 in 30.

[dkf]

6. That is actually rather scary...both of those numbers.

[madeline_con]

3. Why would a married, anti-choice woman even have tests?

Were they originally having Bristol checked for the baby's ethnicity, so "Mom's baby" would be the right shade?

Down's can occur at any age. It is common in older women's pregnancies.

[Duer 157099]

11. Good question. Why test for Down's if abortion isn't an option?

That should really be the question people are focusing on.

Doing a chromosome smear requires an amniocentesis, not exactly risky, but also not exactly without risk. Why perform it if the results wouldn't be used to decide about termination?

Really, I'd like to know.

[cali]

19. uh, how about wanting to prepare for a child with special needs?

It's something I certainly would have wanted to know. I had amnio for that reason, and I had no intention of aborting should my child have DS.

[cali]

15. Oh please. Bearing a DS baby is very rare among teen mothers

and not at all rare among women in their forties. That's just a scientific fact. Period.

[finch96]

25. for the same damned reasons

I had testing done even though I knew I wouldn't terminate: to prepare for a special needs child. Geez. Not everyone who tests for Down Syndrome does it with termination in mind. Turns out my son's special need (autism) doesn't have a prenatal test/marker (yet), but regardless, I wanted the tests to prepare, not to decide whether or not to terminate.

As for younger women having DS babies, it happens. I've taken care of a few young women (one as young as 18) who gave birth to DS babies.

[Cronus Protagonist]

4. I just read about 88% of Down Syndrome babies are born to mothers under 34

Due to increased fertility rate. The percentage of Down Syndrome babies in older mothers is much higher compared to normal births, but it's genetic, so young females, having more babies than older females, tend to have more Down Syndrome babies than their elders just due to normal aging and fertility issues.

[lligrd]

17. Only Because Most Mothers Are Under 34. nt

[Cronus Protagonist]

29. Funny, that's exactly what my post said

Are you in the habit of repeating people's posts? lol

[moriah]

5. It is connected to age of the mother, however....

.... more younger women have children than older women, so the majority of baby's born with Down's Syndrome are born to younger women.

"Researchers have established that the likelihood that a reproductive cell will contain an extra copy of chromosome 21 increases dramatically as a woman ages. Therefore, an older mother is more likely than a younger mother to have a baby with Down syndrome. However, of the total population, older mothers have fewer babies; about 75% of babies with Down syndrome are born to younger women because more younger women than older women have babies. Only about nine percent of total pregnancies occur in women 35 years or older each year, but about 25% of babies with Down syndrome are born to women in this age group."

http://pediatrics.about.com/od/birthdefects/f/down_syn_causes.htm

[VenusRising]

7. From the National Down Syndrome Congress:

"While the likelihood of giving birth to a child with Down syndrome increases with maternal age; nevertheless, 80% of babies with Down syndrome are born to women under 35 years of age, as women in that age group give birth to more babies overall."

http://www.ndsccenter.org/resources/package3.php

[dkf]

9. Well I guess that doesn't solve the question of the Palin baby then.

[VenusRising]

10. They don't normally screen women under 35, either.

That will lead to more DS births for younger women, as well.

[FedUpWithIt All]

8. It is said that 75% of DS children are born to under 35 mothers because they have more babies.

http://www.lpch.org/DiseaseHealthInfo/HealthLibrary/genetics/downs.html

What is the risk of parents of a child with Down syndrome having another child with Down syndrome?

In general, for women under 40 (after having one child with Down syndrome), the chance of having another baby with Down syndrome is 1 percent. The chance for Down syndrome is also known to increase with the mother's age and, after age 40, a mother would simply have the risk based on her age at delivery. It is important to know that about 75 percent of babies with Down syndrome are born to women under 35. This is due to the fact that women under 35 have more babies than women over 35. Your physician may refer you to a geneticist or genetic counselor who can explain the results of chromosomal tests in detail, including what the recurrence risks may be in another pregnancy and what tests are available to diagnose chromosome problems before a baby is born.

[Boz]

12. This is assuming the child has down syndome to matter about age. Look at the pictures of the child,

It does not have the common features, but does look Inuit.

The downs syndrome may have just been a cover story also to explain the different appearance from the parents.

[thereismore]

14. I don't get it. nt

[LisaL]

18. The kid's got slanted eyes.

But downs syndrome babies do have slanted eyes.

[LisaL]

16. Downs syndrome babies have slanted eyes. It's a common

feature.
Honestly, though, looking at the photo, I wouldn't guess that the kid got Downs. He is a pretty cute kid. But slanted eyes are a common feature in children with Downs syndrome.

[Boz]

20. Not slanted, Down syndrome often have Upturned eyes, flat head surfaces

Joined sutures in the skull and heavy neck skin sack at the back of the neck, these children used to be called mongoloids, because they were common look to mongol anthropology.

The Inuit people, which are indigenous to the area the Palins are from are also genetically linked to the Mongol ancestry.

Its the eyes and the childs nose flare that are the dead giveaway. They are uncommon of Down Syndrome, but very common to the Inuit. But to a casual eye it would eb easy to say Down syndrome is why.

So it could be easy to say "oh he just looks Inuit because he has Down Syndrome", rather than explain why the childs features don't match the alleged parents(Palin and her husband, not the daughter).

The dad has maternal genetic link on his grandmothers side to the Inuit but it never manifested in any of their 4 other kids.

So it is likley, if there was anything to the baby being the daughters, that the baby had an Inuit father. Which would account for the different look.

All of this adds up to no big deal in the grand scheme in a small town.

On a national level where the child has already been held up as a badge of Palins "No Abortion" stance, she has said they chose not to abort even though they knew he had "downs" and that points to her courage.

To those that say this doesn't matter and we should just drop it, this is a woman who, if McCain died in office could be choosing 3 of the next SCOTUS judges, your damn right it matters.

[LisaL]

21. I can't possibly buy this. It would be totally insane.

The kid's gonna grow up, you know. Why on Earth would anyone try to pass a healthy normal child for someone with Downs? And considering there is a genetic link to inuit in the family, there would be no need for it. They could always have said the kid takes after granny. I think you are way off base here.

[Boz]

23. People are stupid when they lie, because its a convenience of time.

So you tell a small lie to buy time till the pressure is off and no on is paying attention.

Why did she wait until 2 weeks before delivery, which was 2 weeks after she was first contacted about a vp possibility to announce she was pregnant. There is smoke, does that mean there is fire, still unknown.

You don't believe it because you don't believe or don't want to believe people are that stupid and devious and likely because you have no context to compare it to.

I look at what I see and make my judgements and comments from what my trained eyes see in the images, the rest of the story comes from the why, not the other way around.

I don't neccesarily ascribe to the "its the daughters" answer, there are others, it may not be the fathers baby and so on.

But with all that I have seen of the child, and the pictures of Palin and the daughter from the time frame (Palin not looking pregnant, the daughter looking pregnant) coupled with missing school time of the daughter, it makes a compelling case of smoke.

The one clincher that put me over on the fence of this might be true was the part of teh story where an adult mother of 4 children who has a 5th pregnancy at challenging age, that has already confirmed through tests that the child is an at risk pregnancy, flew 10 hours back to her home town in labor, un-attended by medical help on a commercial flight with Alaska airlines, Never mind there is no way a commercial airline let her on the plane in that condition(its illegal), but all the other logistics too.

Theres a flame and now that she is one step away from impacting my future, it matters to me to find out the source.

[thereismore]

13. I know a 20-year old mom with a Down syndrom baby. Her first. nt

[Tennessee Gal]

24. My daughter gave birth to a Down syndrome baby at 18.

One key to determining Down syndrome is that they have only one line going across their hands.

[SoCalDem]

22. High.. not by statistic, but by volume

Older Moms have a greater risk, but they also have a more difficult time conceiving.. Young women are more fertile, and it;s not "rare" at all for a first birth to be a baby with downs..or a second or whatever

[greguganus]

26. What are the odds that an incestual relationship can cause Downs Syndrome? n/t

[finch96]

27. that's just gross.

What a horribly offensive question. I wonder when people will start asking if my special needs son is the result of incest?

I hate that line of thinking, that a special needs child is somehow the result of something sinister. It gets really really old.

[LeftishBrit]

28. No more than for any other relationship!

I don't know why you're even bringing it up, but:

Genetic disorders that are caused by recessive genes *are* more common if the parents are closely related. But Downs syndrome is not inherited in that way. It is caused by an extra chromosome. Incest could have nothing to do with that.