Letters
Volume 187 - Issue 9

Antenatal care implications of population-based trends in Down syndrome birth rates

Author:  Kevin B Orr

Med J Aust 2007; 187 (9): 543-544. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2007.tb01404.x
Published online: 5 November 2007
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To the Editor: I refer to the recent letter by De Costa and Calcutt1 about diagnosis and management of possible Down syndrome pregnancies in remote areas of Queensland, and more specifically the lack of abortion facilities and cost of travel to larger centres for this service. Nowhere in the letter was impartial counselling mentioned.

The following anecdote may be anathema to an academic journal, but I think it is relevant. Thirty years ago I took my 7-year-old son, who has Down syndrome, to a hospital cricket match. He had enormous fun trying to play cricket, as kids do. Watching was a young doctor whose wife fell pregnant not long after. The tests of those days suggested that the child might have Down syndrome. With memories of our son, they decided to go ahead with the pregnancy. As it happened, the child did not have trisomy 21.

Children with Down syndrome, given a normal family life and lots of stimulation and love, may be able to achieve normal school levels and even work outside sheltered workshops. And they give lots in return. At a World Down Syndrome Conference in Sydney some years ago, adults with Down syndrome took part in the presentations, and notably present were a number of babies with Down syndrome whose mothers seemed quite happy with their lot.

I am not against free choice, but people making that choice should be fully informed of the positive side of having a child with Down syndrome.

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