Some parents have a greater risk of having a baby with Down syndrome. Risk factors include:
- Advancing maternal age. A woman's chances of giving birth to a child with Down syndrome increase with age because older eggs have a greater risk of improper chromosome division. By age 35, a woman's risk of conceiving a child with Down syndrome is about 1 in 350. By age 40, the risk is about 1 in 100, and by age 45, the risk is about 1 in 30. However, most children with Down syndrome are born to women under age 35 because younger women have far more babies.
- Having had one child with Down syndrome. Typically, a woman who has one child with Down syndrome has about a 1 in 100 chance of having another child with Down syndrome.
- Being carriers of the genetic translocation for Down syndrome. Both men and women can pass the genetic translocation for Down syndrome on to their children.
April 19, 2014
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