Can a woman have her first child after the age of 30 or will the child have down syndrome?
23 مارس 2013
The overall risk of having Down syndrome is 1 per 800 live births.
In women who are 35-39 year old it increases to 1 per 300 live births.
However with the current antenatal tests that we do as early as 2 to 3 months of pregnancy we can detect the majority of abnormalities regardless of the mom's age.
•
Down syndrome can result from pregnancies at any age ,however the risks are small at younger ages and increase modestly after age 35 and sharply after age 40 .At age 45 the risk is 1in 40 ,whereas at age 25 it is 1 in 1200 . The current antenatal testing ,ultrasonographic and chemical on the mother,s blood can quatify the magnitude of risk , but the only definitive test that can rule out this condition is via obtaining fetal cells from the fetus and running genetic analysis on the DNA of the fetal cells cells . Obtaining fetal cells from amniotic fluid (amniocentesis) ,or getting chorionic villus sampling carry a risk of loss of pregnancy of around 1% .That is why they are recommended on high risk pregnancies (over age 40 ) , or if the other antenatal tests( chemical and ultrasonographic ) indicate a high risk probability . Then the couple are given the facts and they make the decision after their informed consent .
•
