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What Causes Down Syndrome ?
Down syndrome is a genetic condition which causes development issues, both physical and mental, in a child. A baby born with Down syndrome is usually born with a flat facial profile, small ears, enlarged tongue, upward slanting eyes and a single crease in the center of the palm. Babies with Down syndrome have loose joints and low muscle tone. When compared to normal babies, their growth and development is quite slow.
Down syndrome was first described in 1887 by a British doctor called John Langdon Down. However, the actual cause of Down syndrome was only identified in 1959.
Babies inherit their genes from their parents by way of chromosomes. When a baby is conceived, it gets 2 sets of 23 chromosomes, one set from each parent, to get a total of 46 chromosomes. A Down syndrome baby ends up getting an additional chromosome taking the total chromosomes to 47 instead of the normal 46. During cell division, a piece of chromosome 21 gets attached to another chromosome, usually chromosome 14.
Usually the mother is the carrier of Down syndrome and research has shown that a mother’s age is one of main causes for Down syndrome. The later a woman has a baby, the more the chances of the baby being born with Down syndrome. If a woman below 30 has a baby, the chances of Down syndrome are 1 in 1,000. However, when a woman has a baby between 30 and 35, the chances of Down syndrome are 1 in 400 and that figure jumps dramatically to 1 in 60 if a woman has a baby between the age of 35 and 42.
Science has still not been able to find out why Down syndrome occurs during cell division and at the moment, there is no way of preventing Down syndrome.
