title: The effect of prenatal diagnosis on the incidence of Down syndrome livebirths in the Singapore General Hospital.
abstract: During a 3-year-period between January 1988 and December 1990, there were 12 Down Syndrome (DS) livebirths out of 13,794 livebirths at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Singapore General Hospital, giving an incidence of 1 in 1,150 livebirths or 0.87 per thousand. There were 1569 mothers who were 35 years or older at the expected date of delivery (EDD) and 5 of these 12 DS livebirths were from these older mothers. Although only 11.5% of all mothers were 35 years or more, as a group, these older mothers contributed to 42% of the DS livebirths. There were 5 DS fetuses diagnosed prenatally and 4 were aborted electively. The fifth DS fetus which was diagnosed prenatally was allowed to continue to term because of the mother's religious objection to an induced abortion. The failure to offer prenatal diagnosis and selective procreation to all mothers 35 years or older had resulted in 4 unnecessary DS births, reducing our DS detection rate by a factor of 33%. All these 4 cases were booked late for antenatal care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Singapore General Hospital.
authors.forename: G S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Yeo
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Ali
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005315:Fetal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D012846:Singapore / Q000453:epidemiology