Second sibling - ASD again?

[FutureMum]

I've just found out I am pregnant and feel very sad. This is after years of trying, and when I was ironically about to get back on the pill. My lovely DD has severe ASD, we have no family support and I am desperate to quit my current job for another one. Was told in the past the probability of having another child with ASD is 1 to 10 or 1 in 15 (instead of 1 in 100) and I am terrified. I feel like I have made a stupid mistake. Has anyone been in this situation before? Did you decide to go ahead with the pregnancy? My fear is that if the child's needs were even more severe than my DD's, we would be unable to cope with it, while working, no support (currently we get no respite and we have not seen our family in this country due to issues.)

I'm sorry to hear that you are feeling so worried. Pregnancy is a bit scary at the best of times and it's very normal to have doubts. I haven't really any advice but hope everything works out ok. Hopefully someone else with some experience will come along and post.

It is difficult. I have a teenage daughter who is just undergoing assessment for aspergers and today during a routine appointment my gp hinted gently but clearly that he would query asd for my youngest daughter. Only you can know how you will cope. Your chances to have a child without asd are still around 90% according to your statistics and given that it is a spectrum it is very wide. Can you get support through self-help groups?
Ultimately only you can make the decision.

Hi futuremum I have a dd (7) who is currently being assessed for autism, probably Aspergers although I don't think they actually give this as a dx now...I am nearly 12 wks pg with second child and one of the reasons for the gap was the difficulties dd had. I researched and it suggested there was a 20% chance of having another child with asc. Obviously other factors could come into play with statistics I guess. There is no choice of course but to wait and see but I understand your concerns as I have them too . I don't have an answer tho unfortunately