A lovely Bad Science title: Scientific proof that we live in a warmer and more caring universe. Despite the fact that there are 4% more Down syndrome births each year, we are actually creating far more Downs babies, and choosing not to bring them to term, in the same ratio as we did in 1989. So hard to report science when there is no impetus to wait until the story behind the story emerges.
More summary of poor science reporting on multiple vaccines – it is now clear that 1) MMR does not cause Autism (any more or less than the individual doses do or don´t, and they don´t) and 2) that there is currently a measles epidemic directly attributable to the crazy reporting and reaction of parents to the MMR scare many years ago.
The gentleman´s name was Mr Down. So it´s Down´s Syndrome.
If we´re not bringing more of them to term (and thus being more caring), does that mean we´re creating 4% more babies overall then?
I changed the title as per your first comment (although the Americans seem to call it Down syndrome, which reads oddly like a link to Seasonal Affective Disorder).
On the second, I don´t believe we are being more caring or less by not bringing Down syndrome pregnancies them to term – it has to be an individual choice for the parents. I think they are likely to be caring either way.
On numbers, I think the issue is that there are far more late pregnancies (40s and beyond) than there used to be (largest consistent rises in 30-40 year olds since 1976), therefore more babies at risk of Down´s. Actual number of pregnancies has been up and down since then. See long-term trends and a useful summary.
"During the past 20 years the level of fertility in England and Wales has undergone several changes. Between 1986 and 1990, fertility generally increased slowly; during the 1990s it experienced a steady decline and in 2001 hit a record low of 1.63 children per woman. Since 2001 the level of fertility has been increasing rapidly, reaching 1.86 in 2006. These changes are reflected closely at the regional level but are not always mirrored at local authority level.
Throughout the period 1986 to 2001, fertility decreased for women aged under 30, but consistently increased at ages 30 and above. Since 2001, fertility rates have started to rise among women in their twenties while continuing to rise at older ages, with the greatest increases occurring to women aged 30 to 34. In 2004, for the first time, the fertility rate for women aged 30-34 rose above the rate for women aged 25-29, making the early thirties the most fertile age group in England and Wales as a whole."