Just wondering who has taken the blood test to determine if your baby has downs syndrome or do you chose not?

Question

to have it? I have chosen not to with my other 2 pregnancies and i was just curious to see if anyone else has!! I would not be able to be changed so why find out?

Does anyone deny haveing any of the other blood tests? If so why?

Answer 1

Im 20 years old and this is my first pregnancy. I took the test and ended up testing positive for Downs. I went and had a thorough ultrasound done to measure everything of my baby to see if she looked like she was gonna have Downs. I also had to do Genetic Counseling because I did not want the amniocentisis (and I think by the time we knew it, was getting too late to have one). They ended up concluding that I am back to low risk to having a baby with Downs due to my baby's measurents and all that. Im still only 32 weeks so I can't tell you the final results! Just to let you know I will never have that test again. It just stressed me out and I knew I wasnt going to abort even if I tested positive so I shouldnt have taken the test anyways.

Answer 2

My husband and I have chosen not to have the test done.

When my sister was pregnant with my niece, she had the test done. The test came out positive. The doctor’s office actually called my sister at work to let her know that her baby might have down syndrome. That was when she was around 18-weeks pregnant. So, she spent the next 4 and a half months worrying about her daughter…let alone the fact that the doctor tried to convince her to get an abortion. My brother-in-laws parents freaked out and told my sister “well, we don’t have down syndrome in our family. It must be your fault.” It was horrible. I felt so bad for her. She decided to keep the baby and up until the delivery, they were still unsure as to whether or not it would be “healthy” or not.

Two years later, my niece is absolutely gorgeous and perfect. She is a little baby genius! And to think, if my sister would have taken the doctor’s advice and had an abortion, this perfect little girl wouldn’t exist. Apparently, false positives are quite common for this test. I have met many other people since then who have had the same experience.

My husband and I knew from early on that we were going to keep our baby…no matter what. So, we turned the test down (several times in fact…because they keep asking). Whether or not our baby boy has down syndrome, he will still be perfect to us.

Answer 3

I have laways opted NOT to get the AFP triple screen for several reasons. The first being that it has a really high rate of false positives. Which even if you believe your child has downs for one day is too much for any parent to go through, especially when it's not true. The second reason I've always opted not to do that particular test is that Downs babies usually aren't critical at birth just from having downs so it's not like the test can help the child or save the child's life upon birth so why bother? I mean, A child with downs is perfectly capable of living a happy, relatively healthy NORMAL life and I think that tests like that, although meaning well, often end in a perfectly beautiful life being taken from this world.

Answer 4

Wasn't available for my first pregnancy and I would have CVS this time. I will not continue a pregnancy if the fetus has Downs or certain other problems. I don't share your values. I think quality of life is important and there is a big difference between Downs syndrome and being born without a limb. Having been a caregiver for an aged Great-Aunt who was brain injured at birth as well as an autistic brother, I know just how little help there is. I also would lack any back up--I don't have relatives who would pitch in if something happened to me or my guy. You have to make this choice as per your situation.

Answer 5

I do agree with you, regardless of the test results, that wont make things different, and I think it would be horrible to have an abortion just because the baby wont be perfect. I actually did have the test for both my pregnancies, but to tell you the truth, I was not aware that I was getting the test done, I just thought of it as routine testing, and never bothered to ask why. I do know that my sister-in-law did make the choice to not have the test done for both her pregnancies, she said she didn't want to know, that it would make no difference.

Answer 6

I had the blood tests with all three of my boys, I just thought it was the norm, never knew I had the option not to have them...guess what? I was considered high risk with all three of them....go figure.
the blood test you are refering to in your question....does not determin a darn thing...it is only a screening to discover your chances of having a child with DS...it does not, nor will it ever, be able to tell you definetly if your baby will have down syndrome or not. the only way to know for sure is to either have an amniocentisis or a cvs sampling done. your probably thinking right now...how the heck does she know this when she didn't even know she could opt out of the screening?....simple really. almost 4 yrs ago I gave birth to a little boy who happens to have down syndrome. I found out when I was 5 months pregnant that he would have DS. you see I was considered "high risk" because of the afp blood screening so I decided to have a level 2 ultra-sound where they measure the fungal fold, long bones of the baby as well as look for congenital heart defects and intestinal blockages which are all common in children with down syndrome. my son had three "markers": congenital heart defect, called av-canal, shorter long bones, and thicker fungal fold so the chances he was going to have down syndrome were pretty good. I still went ahead with the amnio, I needed to know for sure....NOT to abort...but rather to prepare. I read everything I could find about DS and the health risks that my son faced and it gave me the opportunity to ask the right questions, lose some of the fear I was having and accepting the fact that my son would be different in some people's eyes. I don't regret for one minute having any of the tests...because in my case it helped me to understand something I was not familiar with and to learn about all the programs that are out there for him to help in his developement and education. the day I gave birth to my son and the days that followed were one of happiness and joy, because I had already accepted that I was going to be a parent of a child with special needs. I don't know how I would have handled the situation if it were ''dumped" on me soon after his birth. so in that respect I am glad I had all of those tests/screenings done.

Answer 7

I didn't get the test. I was poked and prodded enough for blood work to test for diabetes. Plus I hate needles! I don't think it is wrong to test for Down's. I wouldn't have aborted even if it showed I had a baby with Down's, but it would have made me able to better to learn and prepare for a special needs baby. I would love my baby no matter what, that is my job!!

Answer 8

i had it done, that way if it was positive i would have time to research it and kind of get an idea of what will be going on, basically so i could prepare in some way. I took all the blood tests they offered. Getting the tests wasnt harmful to me or the baby so i went for them all.

Answer 9

That's how I feel. I wouldn't do anything different, other than better prepare, so why find out. If the test was 100% accurate, I might consider it, just so that I could better prepare myself. However, I've known too many people who have taken it, was told their child was going to have it, and then found out that was not the case. I have enough stress; I'll pass.

Answer 10

I denied it with both my pregnancies. I wouldn't do anything about it, and they are come out positive so many times without there being anything wrong..why worry about those things while you are pregnant? If your baby has Ds it has DS, you aren't going to do anything about it anyways!

I also chose to have NO screenings done with my 2nd baby. No blood work, no glucose testing..nothing!! I also had a homebirth with the 2nd!!