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Studies prove local parent support groups improve mothers’ psychosocial situation and have effected positive changes in physician’s attitudes about Down syndrome:​ 

“Taken together, the psychosocial situation of mothers of a child with Down syndrome, as self-reported, has improved considerably over the last 30 years. … Emotional factors of stress and feelings of guilt have become less prevalent. A major constituent of this positive development are parents’ self-support groups, which have been established throughout the world.” Wolfgang Lenhard et al., Attitudes of Mothers Towards their Children with Down Syndrome Before and After the Introduction of Prenatal Diagnosis, 45 Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities 98 (2007).​ 

    “Positive changes in physicians’ attitudes during the past 15 years have been influenced by parent advocacy groups, court decisions, and studies showing that the ultimate intellectual and social skills of Down syndrome children are greater than was previously believed.”

RH Haslam, The Physician and Down Syndrome:  Are Attitudes Changing?, 7 J. Child Neurol. 304-10 (1992).​