Alaska Governor Walks the Walk: Gives Birth to Down Baby

The doctor’s announcement in December, when Palin was four months pregnant, presented her with a possible life- and career-changing development. “I’ve never had problems with my other pregnancies, so I was shocked,” said Palin, a mother of four other children. “It took a while to open up the book that the doctor gave me about children with Down syndrome, and a while to log on to the Web site and start reading facts about the situation.”

The 44-year-old governor waited a few days before telling her husband, Todd, who was out of town, so she could understand what was ahead for them. Once her husband got the news, he told her: “We shouldn’t be asking, ‘Why us?’ We should be saying, ‘Well, why not us?’”

There was never any doubt the Palins would have the child, and on April 18 she gave birth to Trig Paxson Van Palin. “We’ve both been very vocal about being pro-life,” Palin said. “We understand that every innocent life has wonderful potential.”