Read beyond the headlines!

Which of these statements about trisomy 18 are backed up by research?

• Intervention improves survival to 1 year (Meyer et al 2015)
• Intensive (or aggressive) intervention does not improve neonatal survival (Subramaniam et al 2015)
• Infants with trisomy 13 survive longer than infants with trisomy 18 (Houlihan & O'Donaghue 2013)

Yes, I've given links to the research that apparently backs them up. However, when you read further into these studies, you realise that their conclusions are not in fact reliable.

How did it feel to be the parent of a baby with trisomy 18 on the neonatal unit?

I've been searching for an analogy for this for a while, you know the type: imagine you're abseiling off a tower and half of the instructors think it would be in your best interests to fall to your death, but you don't know which half; or, you have to negotiate an obstacle course in order to save your child's life, and along the way you'll meet people, some of whom will tell you the truth, some of whom will lie, and some will prevaricate, and you have to work out who is on your side in order to win.