Former NSYNC member Joey Fatone stayed in the limelight when he competed on the popular TV show Dancing with the Star in 2007. He is probably dancing again judging by recent online reports. His wife, Kelly recently gave birth to their second child in Orlando on Monday, January 11. The baby joins big sister Briahna who was born on March 21, 2001.

The baby’s name is Kloey Alexandra Fatone and she weighed 5 pounds, 8 ounces at birth. Commenting on her size in an interview with People.com Fatone said, “Kloey’s so small. She looks like a little doll. But she’s healthy and doing just fine.” Labor was induced two weeks because Kelly was said to be suffering from a fast heartbeat and occasional fainting spells. Fortunately, Kelly is also doing well after the birth.

Mom’s Health Issues

The family’s gratitude for the health of mother and baby is understandable. Clots were found in Kelly Fatone’s lungs and she was diagnosed her with a condition called methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase. It is a rare genetic condition but it can have serious implications for both the mother and the unborn baby. With the condition, there is the risk of the baby being born with chromosomal defects. The mother’s life is also placed in jeopardy. Inducing labor early was clearly what the doctors felt was in the best interests of both mother and child.

In an update on Kelly’s condition Fatone said, “The blood clots have broken up, Kelly’s doing fine…” The couple has been married since September 9, 2004, but had been together for ten years before getting married.

What’s Fatone Been Up To?

Since leaving his boy band days behind, Fatone has kept busy. He has been seen hosting The Singing Bee on NBC, as well as the Australian version. He has hosted the red carpet pre-shows for TV Guide and served as ringmaster for the reality TV series Celebrity Circus. Fatone has also done some film work, most notably in the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Congratulations to Joey Fatone and his wife Kelly on the latest addition to their family fold. His busy life is definitely going to get a lot busier.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute announced today that their researchers, together with others at Stanford University have developed a new test that can accurately detect Down Syndrome (or the so-called Trisomy 21) as well as two other chromosomal aberrations that can cause serious birth defects.

Currently, two methods are mainly used in prenatal diagnostics to detect chromosomal defects in the unborn baby: amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling (CVS). These two methods require removing amniotic fluid by inserting a needle into the mother’s uterus. Although considered more or less safe, these methods are however invasive and present a small risk of miscarriage. The advantages of this new technique are:

1. Non-invasive
2. Risk-free
3. Can be conducted early in the pregnancy
4. Will end up to be cheaper

The idea is based on the fact that small amounts of fetal DNA are found in the mother’s blood. However, it has been a problem to find these small amounts of DNA considering that they occur in mommy’s blood at about 1 baby DNA to a million of mommy DNA. However, by using a shortcut “shotgun” approach that tested for both baby and mommy DNA, the researchers were able to overcome this obstacle.

The blood test has been has successfully demonstrated in 18 pregnant women who also underwent amniocentesis or CVS. The results of the new test completely matched those of the two conventional tests and identified 12 of the 18 pregnant women carrying babies with chromosomal defects. In addition, a man was also blood-tested for reference.

This promising test, however, is not ready to be used as standard test until proven and tested in studies involving larger numbers (thousands!) of participants. This is to make sure of the accuracy of the test considering what is at stake. In another study, European researchers report that the currently used prenatal screening methods (including amniocentesis or CVS) are not 100% accurate. In addition, they can only detect half of chromosome abnormalities (only the trisomoies) that occur in fetuses. Others are not detectable by these methods.

If you are thinking of having amniocentesis or CVS, you might also consider volunteering to participate in the study to confirm this new blood test. It’s just giving a little bit of your blood.

Others may ask, why get tested at all? I’d say, let’s respect each other’s right to choose.