Is it too risky for this DS'er to be thinking about babies?

I never dreamed I'd be posting over here!

I am 4.5 years post op - Duodenal Switch. 
I am 44 years old (45 in a few months)
I have never had children
I had a bowel obstruction in 2009

I never thought I wanted kids.  But now I think I might.  

The way I look at it, I have three high risk factors:

Age
Malabsorption from the DS
Prior bowel obstruction

I have an appointment with a specialist in a few weeks, but thought I'd see if anyone had any thoughts ...

If it's too risky, I'm probably going to look into permanent birth control, such as having my tubes tied or ablation.   But if it's not ... I really might consider trying. 

Which borders on  insanity, I'm sure!!

Thanks in advance!

I know there are other DS'ers who have perfectly healthy babies. I would talk to your surgeon and to the specialist. The only thing I would worry about with your age is not messing around with trying without help so you don't miss your window. You'd have extra testing and monitoring during your pregnancy but you get to enjoy those extra U/S's.

Good luck and keep us updated on what you decide!

Hi!

I don't have any advise on DS....I have a Band. I had to make sure I got in enough calories, which was difficult on some days. Very doable for me with healthy snacks throughout the day though. I think the overall consensus with any surgery is to make sure you are eating the right foods and the right amounts.

Let me preface that I have a 21 year old son and an 18 year old daughter. Both are off at college. I also have two bonus kids that are 12 and 16, and on their way to being independent. One day I decided that I was really missing having kids in my life so we contemplated having another baby. It was not an easy decision. I am 38, 37 when Blake was conceived so I am AMA (advanced maternal age). Anyone over 35 is "ancient" in the OB world. My rate for having a baby with Down's Syndrome was like 1 in 220. It goes up quite a bit with every birthday. I'm not sure off hand what the rate is for someone who is 45. You can look it up online. When I talked to my RE initially the only thing he talked to me about was the higher incidence of Down's Syndrome between myself at 37 vs a 20 year old mother. I am a speech therapist and I work with individuals with DS, so it didn't really bother me. Yes, I wanted Blake to not have it, but no I wouldn't have been devastated. I didn't opt to do an amnio cause I didn't really care either way and I didn't want to risk the pregnancy to find out. The PLUS side of being AMA is the visit to the maternal-fetal specialist. They did a very in depth ultrasound and blood work to test for genetic abnormalities. They found that the umbilical cord wasn't in a prime location (nothing to do with age) so I had to go back a few times for monitoring. Overall I think I had a total of like 21 ultrasounds. This was between the RE, the maternal-fetal specialist and my regular OB. I had bleeding at the beginning of the pregnancy, a bowel obstruction during the pregnancy and extra amniotic fluid at the end so I had a few more u/s's than most- again nothing to do with age. Blake is absolutely perfect! With my older kids I think I had one maybe two ultrasounds and I went to my regular OB appointments. I felt like it was - "oh yeah, you're pregnant, see ya in a month" Being older they were like "let's make sure EVERYTHING is perfect" Maybe its because I am more pro-active now than I was previously, but it was much more comforting to know that the baby was growing like he should and that he was healthy.

I developed a bowel obstruction somewhere around 20 weeks. It hurt like crazy! I had numerous ultrasounds and finally a CT with one view to get a diagnosis. They didn't want to expose the baby to anymore radiation than one view would allow. It wasn't bad enough that I needed an emergency surgery, so I opted to wait until after he was born.

I absolutely adore my little guy! I can't imagine what life was like before him. I am thankful everyday for him. He has completely changed my life. It was not an easy decision to make to have him though. Children do change your life. I think the biggest adjustment for me is not having "time off". My older kids don't really need me to do anything for them. It's been quite an adjustment to go from independent kids back to a needy infant. I wouldn't change it for a minute though! If I could be guaranteed to have another healthy baby and if I could work part time I think I would probably have a few more. I love being a mother. It truly is the most demanding but rewarding job in the world.

Good luck with whatever decision you make! It's not easy.

I certainly wouldn't let the DS be a major determinig factor - as long as you're up on all your supplements and labs and are monitored throughout your pregnancy, I don't know of any post-DS pregnancies that were particularly troublesome because of the DS. I would be more concerned about the age factor, and that's something you should discuss with your medical team.

Oh, and anyone who's ever had an abdominal surgery is at increased risk for bowel obstructions. Ditto for anyone who has lost a very large amount of weight. So, just about all of us here are at increased risk for bowel obstructions!