Woman over 40 have much bigger risk of Down’s baby
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 7:58 am
The past 20 years have shown that women who have children later in life are more likely to have a baby born with Down’s syndrome.
According to birth records there was a 71% increase of cases detected while in the womb. However, the amount of infants born with the disease has fallen since women now can properly test for Down’s syndrome, and choose to abort the foetus.
In the last decade the amount of women choosing to have children past the age of 40 increased by one hundred percent, raising in 2005 to 22,200 births compared to 11,300 in 1995.
Doctors say that the chance of having a child with Down’s syndrome increases by 16% when a woman is over the age of 40, which many women are not aware of.
Although the study showed that births of babies with Down’s decreased by 1%, this does not account for the fact that many terminations occurred, and according to doctors if all babies diagnosed with Down’s were born then the number would have increased 48%.
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Dr. Maggie Blott, stated that women need to be more informed of the risks of having a child in their 40s, and the challenges that a Down’s baby can present.
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