Now, that's a cute kid!
I do my best to avoid The News. But today, somehow, I heard the same story twice. The first time I felt my blog post response rising. The second time, I decided to write it. The news bit: the unexpected — cough, cough — rise of Down’s Syndrome babies born between 1979 and 2003. Scientists were surprised. I’m not.
And here”s why: the years for the increase (about 1% per year, for a total of 31% increase) correlate almost exactly with the Millennial gen’s birth years (1982 – 200?2/3/4?). A few months back, I wrote a robust post on societal attitudes toward children, child birth and child rearing as impacted by generations and generational theory. It’s called The Terrible Octomom, and it’s a good background for the subject.
Almost 40% of Millennials are first-borns in their families, with many of their mothers having waited to later in life (post 35) to start a family (influence #1). Influence #2 is Millennials are special babies to their parents. And to Society. While the report suggests that as Down’s Syndrome kids are integrated more and given better medical treatment more women chose to bring to term, even knowing from genetic testing, a DS baby.
This is not a comment about that choice, right or wrong. Life quality. Nothing in that realm. I’m looking at this through the lens of generational theory. The other influence that had this number rise is that the babies were Milllennials, and so were born in an era when babies are special. All babies.
And all babies, while important and let’s pray, are loved, it’s the attitude toward children, childbearing and childrearing toward that changes in each generational season. (That adult attitude toward children is one of the primary influences in shaping generations. It’s really important stuff.)
I can guar-an-teeeeeeeeeeee you that the number of DS babies will start to drop in the years between 2004-2024(ish). Why? Very simply because the next gen is the Artist gen, the Homeland gen, and they are the gen born in Winter. As such, they are always a smaller generation. It’s just the cycle. And cycles cycle; that’s what they do.
Again, I recommend reading my post, The Terrible Octomom, for a generation-oriented perspective on the subject. And Dave Sohigian created a helpful, 7-min video about generational seasons.
Photo from http://www.thespeciallife.com/
4 Comments
December 2, 2009 at 11:04 am
Life with a child who has Down syndrome is the best.
6 months after Josh was born with Down syndrome, I attended my first parent group. I was touched by the struggle people were having with “why?” I went to bed with a heavy heart and awoke with this story. I hope you enjoy it.
http://tinyurl.com/secretjourney
December 2, 2009 at 9:08 pm
It’s estimated that 92% of women who find out they are carrying a baby with Ds choose to terminate the pregnancy. I’m not sure how this statistic lines up with your theory. Many, many women who’ve undergone years of infertility treatment to become pregnant, terminate when they discover that the baby is not what they were hoping for. We are already picking and choosing who is worthy enough to be born.
December 4, 2009 at 12:16 am
Lance – thanks for sharing your story.
Tara – I can’t speak to your stats or experience. I know that birth rates and attitudes toward children shift and move through a cycle. And that we were in fall and harvest time from about 1984-2004, with winter starting up 2005. Just take the analogy where you can. It’s a cycle.
December 8, 2009 at 7:53 pm
As a Gen-X’er who has grown up with a profoundly disabled family member, I’m all for letting women choose whether or not to carry to term. It’s all well and good to rhapsodize how fantastic it is to care for a 20-pound infant who doesn’t talk and isn’t really mobile, but eventually these children grow up. For the most profoundly disabled, there was no safety net. When the family member is a 6-foot, 200-pound mobile, combative adult with the mind of a 9-month old, it’s not so much fun changing their diapers. When a profoundly disabled adult repeatedly assaults family members and no respite caregivers can be found, the entire family suffers. Gen X’ers who grew up too quickly being caretakers for their siblings have fought hard to get adequate care for the disabled.