Social media muscles

At the time of writing I'm looking at the picture of a baby born the other day - the baby has Down's Syndrome. I belong to a Facebook group for parents who have children with Down's. 

And a woman joined the group during her pregnancy. She's now a Down's mum having given birth to a gorgeous bundle of joy. The mum's been deluged with good luck messages and affirmations of the type you get when a typically-developing child has been born. 

It was different when Stan was born, pre-social-media. I said in my book that Stan's arrival drew in many less flowers than when his older brother was born. The whole thing was thoroughly depressing. I'm sure many people said that Stan was lovely but we didn't have access to a community that really meant it. 

One to show the heart surgeons 

How would it have been for us if social media had been around when Stan was born and when he had heart surgery? The other day a parent posted that their child was in hospital having a similar operation to the one Stan had in 2002. As this child was small and poorly, just as Stan was, I posted the photo above, encouraging her to have faith because they can all grow up. I hope it helped. 

But for us, when Stan was born we were given a VHS tape from the 1980s depicting girls with Down's wearing inappropriately frilly dresses. Yuk. And we had no social media to draw encouragement from. 

I'm just glad that new babies are being welcomed into the world in a way that all babies should be. And I'm sure it helps the family no end.