hereditary edwards syndrome

[michelle02]

Hi. Two yrs ago i was 5 months pregnant with my first baby, i discovered he had edwards syndrome and based on everything i learnt about this, i terminated my pregnancy. It was the hardest and saddest thing i have ever had to do, but as further results came back from our baby i knew i had made the right descision as he was severly disabled in almost every way and i knew he was no longer suffering. My husband and i had blood tests and the results showed that my husband is a carrier of the gene. I have searched edwards syndrome but i can never find much with ref to the parent being a carrier. I know the chances of further pregnancies are high risk, but can you please explain how high risk? My husband has two other children to a previous marriage and we now have a gorgeous little boy, all of whom are ok. Even based on the fact he has three childern, it terrifies me that i may have to go through this again as it was heart breaking- i know i took the risk again to get my little boy, but i dont know if i can face it again but i desperatley want more children. Can you please tell me the % risk etc of it happening again - has my husband just been lucky that it has only affected 1 in 4 of his children? Are there ways of screening sperm etc so we know it is healthy? I would like any info you can provide on trisomy18, but only ref to people who are carriers. Thanks for your help in this x