Courage in the face of adversity
By Ashleigh Plemper
Farmer Staff Writer
Brooke Simons was ecstatic when she became pregnant with her third child and her first boy. Pregnancy was a road traveled enough times by then that she felt at ease knowing the answers to all her questions.
But she would soon find out that this pregnancy would bear some unexpected news - her son may have Down Syndrome.
“My sister who’s a high-risk sonographer was doing an ultrasound to show us we were having another baby,” says Brooke.
After spotting an abnormality, Brooke’s sister called her doctor.
“There was a point during my pregnancy where they detected some things that pointed to Teddy being prone to heart issues,” says Brooke.
A nuchal translucency was also detected through the process of the ultrasound that day, which gave way to a red flag.
“I then did a noninvasive chromosome testing,” says Brooke.
The noninvasive method of chromosome testing involves having blood drawn. The baby’s blood is then separated from the mother’s, and the chromosomes on the DNA strand are counted.
“That’s what gave us the 99 percent indication Teddy would have Down Syndrome,” says Brooke.
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