{"id":242020,"date":"2021-03-27T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2021-03-27T14:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=242020"},"modified":"2021-03-25T23:42:24","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T04:42:24","slug":"northern-ireland-mom-down-syndrome-families-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/northern-ireland-mom-down-syndrome-families-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland mom encourages Down syndrome families with gift packages of &#8216;joy&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A mother from County Antrim in Northern Ireland is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.itv.com\/news\/utv\/2021-03-18\/co-antrim-mum-spreading-hopeful-down-syndrome-message\">working to spread awareness<\/a> about the joys of being a parent to a child with Down syndrome. Ciara Smyth gave birth to her son, Jacob, nearly two years ago, and found at the time that resources for parents of children with Down syndrome were scarce. \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lot of the medical professionals were lovely and supportive in their demeanour,\u201d says Smyth, \u201cBut there was no specific place you could go to or people you could speak with and you weren\u2019t put in touch with anybody.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Smyth then discovered the \u201cCongratulations Book\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.palsprograms.org\/congratulations-project\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">put<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> together by an American organization called Pals. The book contains handwritten notes from people with Down syndrome discussing the hope and happiness they have experienced in their lives. Smyth was moved and inspired by the book. \u201cIn those letters, they talk about how amazing their lives are and what they\u2019ve achieved and how happy they are,\u201d Smyth said. Importantly, she notes, \u201cAnd they tell parents don\u2019t worry about your new baby, they\u2019re going to be amazing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Smyth decided to start her own organization to help parents get the resources they need, as well as to inspire hope and joy about their futures raising children with Down syndrome. Her organization, Joy 21, puts together resource packages for parents, and is permitted by Pals to include a Congratulations Book in the packages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ:\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/lejeune-foundation-opens-first-u-s-clinic-serve-patients-syndrome\/\">AMAZING: Lejeune Foundation opens first US clinic for patients with Down syndrome<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A mother, Sarah McNeill, said of her Joy 21 package and the Congratulations Book, \u201cI think whenever you get surprised with a diagnosis like Down syndrome and you don\u2019t know much about it, all you really want to know is that your family\u2019s going to be happy and that you\u2019re all going to be okay,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd, do you know what, what I\u2019ve learned this year is that it\u2019s more than okay. But in those early days, that made such a difference to us as a family.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Smyth\u2019s vision is to eventually provide Joy 21 packages for all maternity units in Northern Ireland to help support families who receive a Down syndrome diagnosis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From 2011 to 2015, births of children with Down syndrome <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/birth-rates-down-syndrome-plummeted-50-europe\/\">fell overall by 54%<\/a> \u2014 exterminated before birth \u2014 but in some countries, the problem was far worse than the average. According to a previous Live Action News article:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In southern Europe (countries including Spain, Italy, Greece, and Monaco), the decrease in births was highest, at 71%. In northern Europe (home to countries such as Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden), it dropped by 51%. Eastern Europe (countries including Russia, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary), the birth rate decreased 38%. Each individual country was different. For example, Spain had the highest reduction in births at 83%, while the birth rate in Malta \u2014 considered <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-beacon-malta-protects-preborn\/\">one of the most pro-life countries in the world<\/a> \u2014 hadn\u2019t changed at all.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> In 2017, it was <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/iceland-isnt-eradicating-down-syndrome-it-is-killing-every-person-who-has-it\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reported<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that Iceland was on track to eliminate Down syndrome, a statement that not only implied Down syndrome was a disease in need of eradication, but also completely brushed over the reality that it was not the condition being eliminated, but every human being diagnosed in the womb with the condition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveactionnewsonline\/\">\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a> for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A mother from County Antrim in Northern Ireland is working to spread awareness about the joys of being a parent to a child with Down syndrome. Ciara Smyth gave birth to her son, Jacob, nearly two years ago, and found at the time that resources for parents of children with Down syndrome were scarce. \u201cA [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":680,"featured_media":242200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[9455,5,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Northern Ireland mom encourages Down syndrome families with gift packages of &#039;joy&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Smyth\u2019s vision is to eventually provide packages for all maternity units in Northern Ireland to help support families who receive a Down syndrome diagnosis.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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