My grandmother had 11 children and only my mom has autism (undiagnosed, but highly suspected). My mom had 4 children and only I have autism. I have 2 children and only my youngest has autism. And out of all of my grandma's grandchildren (there are MANY) only 2 of us have autism - me and a cousin who is mentally retarded as well as having autism.

I would have had more children if I could have had more children. Unfortunately, I can't due to medical complications related to my baby making factory.

I sort of think of it this way, when you're having children or planning to have children, there are hundreds of possible problems that can arise. If everyone thought of the possibilities that could happen and decided not to have children because of it, the human race would die off.

You have a 1 in 691 chance of having a baby born with down syndrome. There are 318 million people in the U.S. and 10 million of them have documented bipolar disorder (3 percent of the population). And every 4 minutes a child is born with a birth defect in the U.S. (this is big or small, but basically any type of birth defect - my oldest child was born with a third nipple). In 2012, roughly 8 babies were born per minute in the U.S. Meaning you have roughly, a 1 in 32 chance of having a baby born with some type of birth defect.

Keep in mind, that age, work, family history, health all contribute to the health of a child. The older you are, the more at risk you are of having a child with autism, mental retardation, down syndrome, SIDs and more.

All I am saying is, even understanding these odds, we still have children. If you want another baby and can care for another baby, I say take the chances. If you're on the fence or worried that much about having another autistic child, then perhaps it's best to devote all of your love, time and affection towards the child you have.

In the end, I feel that my complications were a blessings, a bitter sweet blessing. While I am devastated that I'll never have another child, it does mean that I get to focus on my son more than I ever could have, having another baby. My oldest is 9 years older than my youngest - meaning he'll be 18 while my youngest is still quite young. I will be able to devote every living moment to raising him - without having to chase around his younger siblings. It means, I can spend more money on him - he needs an indoor swing for therapy? Sure - because I saved thousands on diapers and clothes and whatever else another child would have had. I am sad - but I am also grateful.

I don't believe it's an 80% chance. Here are some things found on the web related to your chances of having children with autism. I know you cannot believe everything on the internet (but you can rarely believe hearsay) , but most all of them state the same thing (note: I don't particularly care for Autism Speaks, I think they are worthless, but that doesn't make their claims on the subject entirely invalid)

In general, the risk of having a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is about 1 in 68, or 1.5%. But the risk goes up for families who already have a child with ASD. If a family has one child with ASD, the chance of the next child having ASD is about 20%. If the next child is a boy, the risk is 26%. (from raisingchildren.net)

Parents who have a child with autism have about a 1 in 5 chance of having a second child with autism. (from autismspeaks.org)

Autism is much more common in boys than girls; overall, the chance of having a boy on the autistic spectrum is about one in 50. This increases to one in five if the boy is born to a couple who already has an autistic child. (from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-26196...)

There is also this article, too much to simply quote it but it basically states there is a roughly, 7% chance of recurrence in a family, and if there are 2 or more children with autism the risk increases to 32-35% chance another child will be born with autism: http://www.asatonline.org/research-treatment/cl...

I hope this alleviates some fears - and it's best to speak with a psychologist/neurologist that studies autism for better statistics or perhaps, newer updated ones. In the end, it's the choice of the family. I admire both families that choose to have more children and those that do not. Both are very personal and sometimes very difficult decisions.

And @A MyAutismTeam Member I totally feel you, about the last statement. While I wanted to have more children and would have if I could have had more, I am glad, somewhat, that I was unable. Being able to devote my time to my baby and not having to split it between him and another, younger child, probably makes life for both of us so much easier and happier in the end.

Well, consider the fact that my grandmother had 11 children and smoked the entire time with all of them and only one (my mother) came out dysfunctional in any way. She's extremely mentally unstable but has a very high IQ, graduated high school at age 13... can do ANYTHING. But she's... off... a lot.... But she smoked, she worked daily in fields while pregnant and went into labour with one of her kids while working in a field. She was exposed to asbestos, lead and didn't eat the healthiest... yet every one of her kids were born perfectly healthy. No birth defects, none of them premature or underweight. Yet, we all know smoking while pregnant increases the risk of complications and many of us choose not to because of that. But if you were to look at my grandmother and her children alone and see she had 10 perfectly normal/healthy children out of 11 and smoked like a chimney in winter, you'd think smoking would be A-Ok.

Just because you're not in tip-top shape doesn't mean your child WILL certainly come out having problems. And just because you're extremely healthy doesn't mean they will come out extremely healthy. But it doesn't change the fact that your physical and mental health does impact a child while you're pregnant. Not always - but it DOES increase the risks of complications and health/mental problems, including Autism.

I was extremely cautious with all 3 of my pregnancies. Ate right, did not drink, smoke, take any drugs (including prescriptions) with the exception of vitamins. Drank a lot of water, ate mostly a fresh diet, low in fat. I walked daily (I actually weighed less the day before my oldest was born than when I got pregnant as I lost weight due to exercise and diet while pregnant - healthy weight, I was overweight when I got pregnant).

My first child was born healthy - and he was bottlefed to boot. He has only ever had ear infections when he was younger. He never gets sick, has never missed a day of school (and he's 16) due to health issues. Has amazing vision 20/8.

My second was born with Autism, he has seizures, he has had multiple surgeries before he was 6. He has astigmatism in both eyes, is always sick. Constantly sick! he missed 22 days of school last year because he catches everything. He was breast-fed. Yet I was 100xs more healthy during his pregnancy than I was my first (especially considering he was planned and my first I didn't even know I was pregnant until I was 3 months pregnant.... I had very weird periods back then, sometimes 2 in a month sometimes none for 2 months and was overweight so yeah)

My third pregnancy ended in an ectopic rupture, I was also very healthy during it's short duration.

BUT Autism is also hereditary. I have autism, my youngest son has autism. I don't think it's always hereditary, but I feel having it in the family does increase the chances of it significantly compared to having no one in the family with a known/suspected autism diagnosis.

My son, who is second born, has no signs of Autism. I had him when I was 34-35 years of age. I disagree that it's a matter of health issues on the mother which puts their child at risk for Autism. With my first born, who is my Autistic daughter, I was perfectly healthy, I was careful with eating the wrong kinds of food, I even refused to stand near a microwave when it was on just to be safe. My second pregnancy I did none of that and had to take a month off before the birth because of my health, and other than needing tubes in his ears, my son is perfectly normal.

My son was born when my wife and I were 33 and his is on the less severe side, then my daughter was born a year later and she is non verbal on the more severe side. We got the diagnosis when my son was close to 3 and my daughter was 2 and even then we really didn't know what we were in for. We thought about having more but by the time we knew what we were doing we were 38 so we knew we had 2 ASD and we were older so we thought the risk was to high. Throw into this that my brother is ASD it just was way to much of a possibility that we would be making our already tough situation worse.

Even now my daughter being 10 she is just so much work. She is like having a toddler with potty and communication issues to boot.