What is the risk of parents of a child with Down syndrome having another child with Down syndrome?
In general, for women under 40 (after having one child with Down syndrome), the chance of having another baby with Down syndrome is 1 percent. The chance for Down syndrome is also known to increase with the mother’s age and, after age 40, a mother would simply have the risk based on her age at delivery. It is important to know that about 80 percent of babies with Down syndrome are born to women under 35. This is due to the fact that women under 35 have more babies than women over 35. Your physician may refer you to a geneticist or genetic counselor who can explain the results of chromosomal tests in detail, including what the recurrence risks may be in another pregnancy and what tests are available to diagnose chromosome problems before a baby is born.
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