Just in time for Down Syndrome Awareness Month comes the wonderful story of Monica and David, two people with Down syndrome whose wedding and first year of marriage were turned into a documentary by filmmaker Alexandra Codina. "When Monica and David were born, both mothers were told to institutionalize their children," Codina told Disability Scoop. "To later in life realize that things have evolved and there are opportunities available is very challenging. The solution is not to villainize parents because they need our support just as much as their sons or daughters." Monica & David will premiere on HBO on October 14.

Stories of happy, successful adults with Down syndrome are especially important because the stigma of Down syndrome persists, as shown by this story in the National Post. A Canadian couple who hired a woman to be a surrogate mother for their child. When they found out that the child was likely to be born with Down syndrome, the genetic parents asked the surrogate mother to terminate the pregnancy. She refused at first, but eventually agreed because the genetic parents would not support the child and she was unable to raise the child herself. This sounds like a very difficult and painful situation all around. If they had known that many cases of Down syndrome are mild, lots of resources are available for parents, and many children with Down syndrome can do well in school and grow into adults who lead satisfying lives, might these three prospective parents have made different choices?

For Down Syndrome Awareness Month, reach out to the people around you. Show them what daily life with Down syndrome is really like, help dispel some of those myths, and ask for the support you need. Together we can make the world brighter for people with Down syndrome and their loved ones.

The massive needle  infamous for making pregnant women tremble and fathers-to-be pass out may not be long for prenatal testing. Dutch researchers are in the process of developing a blood test that will detect Down Syndrome and other chromosome disorders in the fetus as early as six to eight weeks into pregnancy. The blood test would replace amniocentesis, an optional prenatal test in which amniotic fluid is removed through the abdomen. As it is invasive, amniocentesis has a small risk of miscarriage.

"It is the holy grail of prenatal diagnosis to try and find a reliable method of diagnosing Down's syndrome and other chromosome abnormalities without doing invasive testing," Professor Stephen Robson, spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, told the BBC. "This is another technique that could offer the potential to diagnose Down's syndrome non-invasively but it's important to emphasise that it is some years away."

It's a commonly held belief that children with Down Syndrome grow more slowly and tend to be shorter than other kids, but it turns out the recorded data on this aspect of the condition is over a quarter-century old. That's right -- the growth charts that pediatricians are currently using are from the 1980s and earlier. Since then, there have been notable changes in all American children's growth rates, plus significant advances in the treatment of kids with Down Syndrome. It's clearly time for an update.

Enter the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia  (incidentally, the U.S.'s first pediatric hospital), which received a four-year, $1.2 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to compile new data on the subject. Experts in growth and nutrition, doctors who specialize in Down syndrome, and general pediatricians will all pitch in to chart the new information.

Why are the growth rates of children with Down Syndrome so important? "If we can better understand the growth patterns and the rates of other illnesses that co-occur with Down syndrome, researchers may be better able to plan treatment and design preventive health programs," the grant's principal investigator, Babette S. Zemel, Ph.D., told Newswise. "The CDC has recognized updated growth charts as an important tool for people providing health care to children with Down syndrome."

Over the course of the study, doctors will measure growth, body dimensions and other health information through regular check-ins with 600 volunteers with Down Syndrome ranging from newborns to 20-year-olds. Once the study is complete, the new growth charts will be widely distributed for free.