Lose the Label - I have Down Syndrome, I am not Down Syndrome

[CuppaTeaAndAJammieDodger]

just found this page on facebook www.facebook.com/Losethelabel - utterly beautiful photos of children with Down Syndrome, a great campaign.

Agree completely!

Gorgeous Pictures

Lovely but are there not any adults with Down Syndrome who are also beautiful....my three are fantastic (it could be I am not very young and a bit of a technophobe )

I am Michelle Clark, creator of Lose the Label campaign. Thank you for your compliments. I am an Australian but have lived locally to Cambridge for around 15 years (been in the country 20). My daughter Mara is 21 months old, British, born at the Rosie, gorgeous, a pure delight, completely mischievious and she has Down's syndrome.
There are adults included in the campaign and yes they are all beautiful. Beverley is 58 years old and due to the lack of understanding of Down's syndrome in the time she was born her communication skills are limited, however she is an accomplished artist and lives a full life. There is also Sean (pictured with his dog) who is in his late 30's and loving life. Also there are a number of young adults (17 through to mid twenties) including, Connor Long (accomplished actor), Oliver Hellowell (wildlife photographer and rather fabulous at it) and more! There is a heavy quota of younger children in the campaign which is due to their parents being much more active on the Facebook groups I promote the campaign on. Lose the Label includes every age. I'd be delighted to include your children 2old2beamum ... please message Lose the Label on facebook.

I've viewed some of the message threads on the Mumsnet pages and tbh I'm horrified at the things people think about Down's syndrome. So much of what's being said is not actually true and seems to all be based on unfounded historical information disguised as facts, which is incredibly damaging considering these days a life and death decision can be made based on a small chance a baby 'may' have Down's syndrome. Unfortunately these legacy views are still held with some in the medical industry (not everyone!) so I do hope that those with a 'possible' diagnosis have the opportunity to speak and meet with a family who have a child with Down's syndrome and that their decision is based on fact and not the incredible amount of misconceptions. I'm pro-choice but a decision should be based on the realities not misguided fears from a time nothing was known about the condition.

Hi my story in short, my husband and I always wanted to have children and both have fertility issues. After 3 tries of ICSI we finally got pregnant with twins after 3 years and 20k in debt. We didn't care how about anything as we thought our luck had finally changed. But everything came crumbling down when both our babies were diagnosed with chromosonal abnormalities. We rushed to fmc and did another nuchal scan with Professor Nicolaides and he immediately asked us to do a cvs test. It came back positive with Edwards and Downs syndrome. We both fell apart. I have never seen my husband cry like he did holding me so tight. We both held each other and comforted each other but nothing could take our pain away. We had to make the most difficult decision in our lives to allow the baby with down syndrome the best possible chance to survive. We know the decision was made for us as a most women miscarry children with Edwards syndrome during the pregnancy and then they maybe still born or die soon after with no quality of life. I am sorry if I am offending anyone reading this but this was the hardest decision for us to make. We loved our little girl and named her April. But our other little girl has now got fluid around her lungs. Please can someone tell me if this is a bad sign? Will she survive? I will love her no matter what but would love to hear from anyone who has experienced what I have. Thank you so much

SF7479 - I'm sorry I have no advice to give, maybe start a separate thread as it may attract people who do? Sorry you are having such a difficult time.

Mishclark - I am completely in agreement with your campaign, it has always made me shudder when people say 'he's Down's' as if people who have Down syndrome are a seperate species.

Hi Mums-netters!

Dragonfly TV (makers of One Born every Minute for Ch4) are looking for disabled parents or mums-to-be for a new TV series about pregnancy and parenting.

The series aims to reflect the challenges and triumphs of parenting with a disability and to challenge prejudices and misconceptions.

If you are a disabled parent, or know someone who is, we'd love to hear from you for an informal chat about your experiences.

Email: [email protected]

Thank you so much for the project Michelle. My baby girl is Francesca, she's one week old today, she has Down's syndrome. I've just been going through the photographs and I got to Eleanor and the 'What to say to new parents'. I'm just in tears, so many people have said 'sorry' to us when we've mentioned Francesca has Down's syndrome. Sorry for what?! I don't want them to be sorry, we have a beautiful baby girl who has a condition we are still battling to come to terms with but please don't be sorry, be happy for us!