Please don’t tell us you’re sorry our child has Down Syndrome. There is absolutely nothing to be sorry for.


This is part of my feedback to the hospital, specifically to the screening midwife and fetal medicine consultant. I remember asking our consultant not to use ‘sad news that...’ when he confirmed Frida was likely to have Down Syndrome. I stopped him before he continued and told him that it wasn’t sad news and we didn’t want him to approach it that way. He did apologise and said that it was a difficult conversation to have as not everyone has a positive response. I wish I’d said that you won’t get many positive responses if you start off with ‘sadly’.