has anyone on here terminated due to a positive T21 result?

[Anonymous]

I had 2 abortions. Then I got a healthy, strong, happy and silly baby. You got to do what you got to do.

Do you really want to pile on a sick child on top of all your issues? Are you even sure you can carry this fetus to viability given the result? Can you deal with ICU's?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I have not been in your shoes but I feel for you. My first child has special needs (cerebral palsy, due to a brain injury at birth) and I wonder what I would do if I found out another child was going to have SN too. I am pro-choice but philosophically against abortion when the parents are not choosing whether to have a child but rather trying to choose what kind of child to have. But, I am realistic enough to know that that philosophy might not actually mean I wouldn't consider termination if I had bad test results for a future pregnancy. After all this is one of the reasons I'm pro-choice--a choice about a pregnancy is incredibly agonizing and personal, and I dont think anyone else who is not her has the right to make that decision for her.

Anyway, my only advice is that I'm reading this book called Far From the Tree about kids who are significantly different from their parents in a variety of ways. There are chapters on dwarfism, autism, schizophrenia, prodigies, multiple severe disabilities, Down Syndrome, and several other things. It's very thought-provoking. Anyway if you are looking for reading material I'd suggest looking at the first chapter and then the Down Syndrome chapter.

I find this view point very common and I don't understand it at all. So you are "philosophically" OK with a person acting irresponsibly, getting pregnant accidentally, and deciding to terminate a perfectly healthy pregnancy, but you are offended by a person who looks at the difficult life that would result from the birth of a child that will definitely have both physical AND mental impairment for its entire life and deciding it would be best to not go forward with the pregnancy. This line of thinking makes no sense to me.

I'm late to respond but YES, this is what I believe, because: I do NOT think that forcing a woman to have a child is an appropriate punishment for "irresponsible" sexual behavior (which could of course include getting raped or having birth control fail). I DO think that people, like my son, who will have "physical and mental impairment for their entire life" are human beings whose lives have value just like those of "perfectly healthy" people.

As I said, I am realistic enough to know that there are lots of grey areas in the world and I don't judge people who abort because their children have genetic issues, even if I think that ideally I would choose to continue a pregnancy in that situation.

[Anonymous]

I've been there. I terminated my pregnancy because my CVS showed a positive T21 result. I was desperate to give my one year old a sibling and at 41 was not sure I would ever be able to have another child. After an enormous amount of soul searching thinking and talking, my husband and I both decided to terminate. We were afraid of the strain the child would put on all our lives and felt it was unfair to him/her, who likely would have heart problems and die young, and would prevent us from giving our first child the attention and time he deserved. It was just absolutely the right decision for us and I've never regretted the termination. Good luck to you.

[Anonymous]

OP, baby center has boards for people who are considering termination for diagnoses as well as those not terminating but with poor diagnoses. I suggest you go there if you get a DS diagnosis, as you will find people going through what you are going through.

We had initially poor results on an amnio and until we had further genetic testing done, we were faced with these questions. For us, the issue was could we handle it (whatever 'it' looked like) and what the impact would be on our children? We were most worried first about pain and suffering for the child and secondly, being older parents and leaving a child/adult unable to care for him/herself, especially given the fact that we have one child already with significant learning and emotional disabilities. Would the burden of watching out for the oldest and the youngest fall on the middle child? would we have the emotional, financial, psychological resources to be good parents to three kids, with varying needs? etc. it was a terrible, terrible time, in part because we were facing a diagnosis that was inconclusive as to the severity of issues (genetic mutation)--what if our child just had learning disabilities, nothing severe? or what if she would never speak, walk, feed herself, etc? when we had more information, we rolled the dice and went forward with the pregnancy, and luckily (and I thank God pretty much every day) our baby is healthy and on track. But if our diagnosis had been worse, I think we would have terminated. my SIL terminated for Down syndrome. It was very painful, but she feels it was the right decision.

[Anonymous]

That is awesome news!!! I hope and pray that I get the same news!

Anonymous wrote:With my 1st my NT results came back with a 1 in 25 chance of Downs. Had a CVS test and he was was perfectly fine. With my 2nd, NT results were great but a Downs marker came up on a future scan so went ahead with an amnio to confirm and she was perfectly fine. I am glad that these tests are available but they did cause me and my husband a lot of stress and worry. Also several talks as to what we would do if the results came back positive. I hope your outcome is the same as mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: That is awesome news!!! I hope and pray that I get the same news!

Anonymous wrote:With my 1st my NT results came back with a 1 in 25 chance of Downs. Had a CVS test and he was was perfectly fine. With my 2nd, NT results were great but a Downs marker came up on a future scan so went ahead with an amnio to confirm and she was perfectly fine. I am glad that these tests are available but they did cause me and my husband a lot of stress and worry. Also several talks as to what we would do if the results came back positive. I hope your outcome is the same as mine.

Good luck, PP.