Other Mothers

I am grateful for the Down syndrome community.  Unlike a lot of mothers, I did not have a bad experience at the hospital when I had a child with Down syndrome.  The doctors and hospital staff were all congratulatory.  The first "I'm sorry" that I got wasn't until the bear cub was about a month old and I went to lunch with a friend who has a baby just two weeks older than the bear cub and for a second I didn't even know why she said that.  At the hospital, I spoke with a nurse there that had a two-year-old with Ds and also one of the doctors brought his daughter who was 12 to meet me.  They gave me the information to call the Down Syndrome Association of San Antonio, but I didn't call them for a while, maybe two months later.  I did, however, join Babycenter's Ds group while still in the hospital (we were discharged 48 hours after birth) and met some amazing moms through that group.  I couldn't even tell you which mom it was or even if it was just one, but shortly thereafter, I joined facebook and my facebook list has always had more mothers of kids with Ds than any other group, including my huge, extensive family.

There is something about having a child with Ds that changes some people.  It makes them calmer and less drama prone.  I think it makes them more accepting and better people in general.  Because of this, the Ds community is very tight knit and open with each other.  There are a few women that still cause problem, but you can usually spot them right away and whenever the rare drama erupts in the Ds community, it never hits me because I happen to not have any of these people on my list.

There are a number of people that I would cross the country to help out if they needed it and it amazes me to think that some of these people are moms that I haven't even met in real life yet.  I know that I am not the only one and I know of some that have done this when a child with Ds has been hospitalized.  If this doesn't prove how wonderful the community of parents with Down syndrome is, I don't know what does.