Blood Test

  Let me start this by giving you some back ground  information about our decision to not have testing done while i was pregnant. Adrian and I had decided that we didn't want to do the test to check for Down Syndrome because it wouldn't change our mind about having the baby. Its a decision we would ever choose again. Not because we would ever terminate, but because the shock of knowing at birth took away the joy that should have been there the first few months of Haley's life.
   In my honest opinion I like the blood test. I think being informed early is great. People can get educated on  Down Syndrome and come to grips with the slight new detour in their lives. To me the problem is not whether or not people know about Down Syndrome early its what information they get. Our experience was horrible. I have no doubt that if we had known before she was born, with the information we were given and the way the doctor was so stricken about her having an extra chromosome we would have seriously considered termination. I mean if the doctor is so stricken about it then there would be no way that Haley's quality of life would be any good. I'm not saying all doctors are like this. Haley's pediatrician now is amazing. I look at him with her and think how different would my experience have been if he had been the one to tell me my child had Down Syndrome. But a lot of doctors are not well informed. I have heard countless stories of people whom get the diagnosis and the first things out of doctors mouths is I'm sorry and give the parents a referral to a grief counselor.
  Imagine if you will, a doctor coming in and saying "Congrats your having a baby with an extra chromosome. Its going to be a lot of work, but every child is a lot of work. Your baby is just going to need more help to figure simple things out. But when they do figure it out,  your heart is going to swell and your going to feel like you won the lottery." Obviously its different for every person, and I have only spoken to a handful of people about it, but the answers are still the same. A positive response would have been less traumatic. There still would have been the uncertainty, the grief, but I honestly believe in my heart that the number of women who decide to terminate because of Down Syndrome would drop if the doctors would be better informed on what life with a child with Down Syndrome was really like. How fulfilling it is. How there is stress, and tears but that comes with the territory of any child. It is not a death sentence for your life.
   What I'm trying to get at is that the blood test isn't a bad thing. As long as the person delivering the results has the right information. I think that with the blood test should come training for Doctors on how to deliver the results in a positive way. If the person you trust with the health of the most important person in your life tells you that there are challenges ahead, but that its not the end of world, how can you not have hope that everything is going to be ok??