More Than 90 Percent of Women Carrying a Child With Down Syndrome Choose to End Their Pregnancies, but Parents Raising These Kids Say They're a 'Gift'
4 Nov 2009
- Nina Fuller contributes to ABC News Article
Down Syndrome Births Are Down in U.S. - Nina Fuller contributes to ABC News Article
More Than 90 Percent of Women Carrying a Child With Down Syndrome Choose to End Their Pregnancies, but Parents Raising These Kids Say They're a 'Gift'
 Down Syndrome Myths Drive Decision
<Tess & Hope Fuller
And without knowing what it's like to raise a child with Down syndrome, many women will make their decisions based on misinformation -- and myths -- about the disorder, researchers say.
Nina Fuller's two daughters with Down syndrome: Tess, who is 15, and younger sister Hope. Her fears about having a child with a developmental disability "never materialized." (Courtesy Nina Fuller)
The genetic diagnosis often comes as a shock, and many people assume that raising a child with Down syndrome will be fraught with heartbreak.
But McLaughlin was lucky to be connected with First Call, a program sponsored by the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress, which introduced her to a family with a 5-year-old girl who has the disorder.
"She played hide and seek, and she kept jumping out, telling us where she was hiding," McLaughlin said. "She was amazing. I was thinking she would be sitting in a chair unresponsive and drooling.
"Actually, she was much like our other children," McLaughlin said. "We thought, maybe we can go forward."
McLaughlin said she worried about how the child would affect her siblings and the marriage,
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