Numbers of babies being born in the UK with Down's syndrome are increasing to higher levels than before prenatal screening was widely available. Births of Down's syndrome babies have risen to a figure of 749 in 2006 compared with 717 in 1989, the year screening was introduced. One explanation is offered in the results of a BBC survey of 1000 parents with Down's syndrome children, which indicates that the rise in birth rates is due to a more positive view of the condition. Three in ten of the parents asked said that life for people with Down's had improved, and society took a much more positive attitude. Better integration in education, knowing somebody with Down's, and the support of family and friends were also cited as reasons these parents had decided not to terminate their fetus, despite positive prenatal testing for the condition.
One parent said 'I don't subscribe to the notion of 'the perfect human being' and found the idea of selecting one child in preference to another abhorrent'. Carol Boys, chief executive of the Down's Syndrome Association told the BBC, 'When I and others had our babies it was a very different world - those with Down's syndrome were treated very differently. Now there is much greater inclusion and acceptance'.
However, not everyone believes that rising birth rates represent changing attitudes and more parents opting to continue with a Down's pregnancy. Professor Joan Morris, director of the National Down Syndrome Cytogenetic Register said that the increase in numbers of Down's births is more likely to relate to an increase in the number of older mothers, who are more likely to have a baby with Down's syndrome.
Rebecca Smith reporting in the Telegraph agrees, noting that women are more likely than ever before to give birth in their 40s; '...older mothers are at greater risk of having a child with Down's Syndrome, it is thought that Down's occurs in one in every 60-85 births to women who are over the age of 40'.
In fact, with a rising number of older mothers, attributable to factors such as improved assisted conception services, there are fewer Down's births than might be expected. More than twice the number of women over 40 gave birth in 2006 compared to figures in 1989, but there has only been a four per cent increase in babies born with Down's. Smith observes that since prenatal screening for congenital conditions is offered 'almost universally', women who do go on to have a baby with Down's appear to have made a positive decision to keep the child despite the diagnosis, or choose not to find out the result because they want the child regardless.
Elsewhere in Europe, Down's syndrome birth rates in Denmark have been halved due to a national prenatal screening programme. The number of babies diagnosed with the condition before birth also increased by nearly 30 per cent, the study in the British Medical Journal found. Before the new system was introduced, prenatal tests were mostly offered only to women over 35. The Nursing Times reports that 'risk assessments' of women in their first trimester of pregnancy, combining maternal age, biochemistry and a test of the nuchal translucency fluid in the baby's neck, has increased diagnoses of Down's syndrome before birth to 79 per cent in 2006, compared to 53 per cent in 2000.
Attempts to instigate such a programme in Britain have been halted because of disagreements over screening techniques. However, the improved Danish system has led to a 50 per cent fall in more invasive pre-natal tests such as amniocentesis, which although gives a definitive prediction of Down's syndrome, also carries a risk of miscarriage.
The BBC and Telegraph have also reported an experiment revealed in New Scientist magazine which claims to have eased the symptoms of Down's Syndrome in mice. Down's starves developing nerve cells of two key proteins which leads to problems with mental development. When US researchers injected these proteins - NAP and SAL - into mice pups with symptoms of Down syndrome, they were born able to reach developmental milestones at the normal rate. Researchers hope that these results will be able to help people with the condition, but Carol Boys said that although research which may have a positive impact on people with Down's Syndrome is welcomed, 'it must be recognised that this research doesn't herald a 'cure or 'treatment' for Down's.
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