Hi, Mark!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
   AH>  when the pediatrician's diagnosis of DS had just been   
   AH>  confirmed, the gynecology resident accosted me outside   
   AH>  our room to ask... in essence... why I hadn't been   
   AH>  weeping & wailing & gnashing my teeth.  I told him   
   AH>  about Judy, a former student of mine, and added that   
   AH>  I'd be quite content to have a daughter like her.   
      
   MH>  We had a similar situation.  After they first told us   
   MH>  that our son had DS, they sent in a "counsler" to talk   
   MH>  to us and make sure we were "ok".  I couldn't believe   
   MH>  they did such a thing and sent the person out of the room.   
      
      
             When Nora & I returned home, after her birth, a public health nurse   
   visited us once a week... ostensibly to weigh the baby.  She seemed to regard   
   inspecting me & my housekeeping as her chief responsibility, however.  On one   
   occasion, for example, she went to the kitchen to wash her hands although the   
   bathroom was closer.  Then another nurse took her place.  This nurse was very   
   different.  She said I had a wonderful rapport with Nora, i.e. the first nice   
   thing anybody had said about my parenting.  I reckon she must have given me a   
   passing grade because we heard nothing more for the next fifteen years.  :-))   
      
      
      
   MH>  They treat it like some horrible disease -   
   MH>  which is far from the truth.   
      
      
             Yes, and they can easily do more harm than good by projecting their   
   own fears onto others.  I'm reminded of the dietician who came to see us when   
   Nora was in rehab.  Nora's weight had been stable before her stroke, but as a   
   result of the stroke she wasn't getting enough exercise & was gaining weight.   
   This woman, who clearly had a weight problem herself, kept trying to reassure   
   Nora that it was nothing to be ashamed of.  Nora wasn't ashamed of it at all,   
   therefore we didn't want the dietician putting ideas into her head... (sigh).   
      
             The gynecology resident was different too.  He's the sort of person   
   who inspires me to believe things are slowly changing for the better.  He was   
   present at Nora's birth... he was aware of the gloomy prognostications in the   
   medical textbooks... yet he said to himself, "Something doesn't add up here."   
   He approached me in the spirit of a person seeking more data because a lot of   
   what he's been told doesn't match his observations.  I immediately recognized   
   him as a kindred spirit & the teacher in me seized the teachable moment.  :-)   
      
      
      
   MH>  We are happy with whatever we were given.   
      
      
             ... as are the vast majority of other people who find themselves in   
   similar circumstances, apparently, among North Americans at least:   
      
                  "Parents, Siblings, and People With Down Syndrome   
                           Report Positive Experiences"   
      
                   http://sacbee.com/2011/09/21   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)