I am 35 and my doctor recommends that I have the first trimester screening. It involves a blood test and ultrasound at 11 weeks. While it seems harmless, I have talked with a lot of Moms who had this done and had inaccurate results. This ultimately caused them a lot of unnecessary testing and stress. I was just wondering what your experience has been. Was the result accurate or not?
2007-03-31 04:51:48 · 5 answers · asked by Julia 2 in Pregnancy & Parenting ➔ Pregnancy
As the name implies, it is only a screening test. The way the test is set up, it will be reported as abnormal if your risk of carrying a Down's syndrome baby is increased over the listed cut off value.(This value is usually about 1 chance in 150). So you can see that a high percentage of results that are returned as abnormal are for babies that are not affected. Let's say that at age 35 your risk of having a baby with Down's syndrome is already in the range of 1 in 150, the Early screen may adjust that level to a lower value , say 1 in 200 and therefore be a source of reassurance. Or the result may be returned as 1 in 100 and determined to be abnormal. It still means that the baby has a 1% risk of Down's syndrome (or 99% it doesnt have Down's). The early screen then is merely a device to adjust the statistical odds as to decide the appropriateness of performing the diagnostic test, which is amniocentesis. Where the Early screen carries no risk, the amnio carries a small risk of causing the pregnancy to miscarry. Hence the early screen helps to determine the appropriateness of the invasive amniocentesis. Much of the decision is dependent on the decision you woulod make if you were to be told that the baby was affected with Down's syndrome. In other words, is abortion an option to you, if not...then do you really want this test?
2007-03-31 05:18:23 · answer #1 · answered by Edward H 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've had three babies. With the screening the results are not always guaranteed and so if they have a false postive you will worry the rest of your pregnancy for nothing and the day of the baby's birth you will be wondering what baby will be like instead of anticipating with joy the new life.
Either way, I am not going to get any testing with my other babies. If there was a problem there is nothing they can do in the womb anyway. Still have to wait until baby comes.
Some people say it's good to be able to "prepare" for possible problems, but I don't agree. Every mom worries about her baby by nature whether she has tests or not, so in a sense every mom is preparing for whatever comes.
You don't ever want worry to overshadow the delivery.
My third baby was born with complex congenital heart defects and a Charge Syndrome (genetic disorder) diagnosis, but we had no idea until after we brought her home. With no testing and ultrasounds done, though, the day of her birth was joyous and worry free, a beautiful memory for us.
I'm glad we didn't get genetic testing or ultrasounds. How would knowing in advance have changed anything except for the worse? My family would have been "grieving" and worrying all throughout the pregnancy. Who needs that?
I would only recommend testing if you actually had a STRONG reason to suspect a MAJOR problem. I don't think a woman's age (i.e. 35 or older) is a good enough justification.
Hope this is helpful.
2007-03-31 12:13:18 · answer #2 · answered by Veritas 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i had the triple blood test at 16 weeks and my results came back that i had a 1in 170 chance of having a baby with downs.
i know this doesn't sound high risk but that was the category i went under which makes you fell even worse and as my previous estimated chance for a girl of my age was 1 in 1500 i thought i was a pretty big drop. we were offered a amino but refused as theres a 1 in 100 chance of having a miscarriage.
it felt like the right thing to do as well, as i just had a feeling that the baby was fine but just for peace of mind i had a 4d scan at 25 and 30 weeks by a midwife who specialized in baby's with chromosome defects and she said are little boy was absolutely fine you could also just tell by his face.
I'm now 32 weeks and cant wait to meet him!
anyway that test put me and my partner through so much stress and heart ache over nothing it even made me fell down about my baby and i lost all the excitement for weeks until i knew he was OK and we said we would never have the test done in future pregnancy's.
good luck hope this helps but you have to do what ever you fell is best.
2007-03-31 16:42:09 · answer #3 · answered by Sam W 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No they were not...I am 35 weeks pregnant, and I am 38 years old...This is my 2 baby.
They told me that statistically I had 1/28 chances to have a downsindrom baby.
I refused to do the amnio because I know for a fact that can cause miscarriage and I was not in any position to put my baby in danger for 1/28 chances...si I didn't...but for months I couldn't stop thinking...."What if"....so at 32 weeks I had a 3D/4D ultrasound and the baby is OK....I am very happy....
2007-03-31 12:40:34 · answer #4 · answered by capuchina 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i had it done. its so much better to have it done then not. because wonder if they find something is going wrong and they can fix it.you should do it. :) good luck
2007-03-31 12:01:24 · answer #5 · answered by charlie 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋