A person with Down Syndrome is different. And for some reason, humans don't like

one in every 691 babies will have Down Syndrome

different. I always thought Down Syndrome was rare. This was the first thing I was wrong about.

Turns out Down Syndrome is the most commonly occurring genetic condition. In the U.S. it breaks down to one in every 691 babies will have Down Syndrome. That comes out to approximately 6,000 babies a year. There's more than 400,000 people living in the U.S. that have Down Syndrome.

The next thing I was wrong about was I thought that if you had Down Syndrome, it was because it ran in your family. Wrong. For the most part anyway. Turns out Down Syndrome is hereditary in only 1% of all instances. It's completely random in the other 99% of the cases. At this point the only known factor that will increase the risk of Down Syndrome is the age of the mother. The risk goes up if mom is over 35.

Video seems to work best so here's a quick overview of Down Syndrome that will hopefully make things a little clearer.

 

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