thoughts on first trimester diagnostic tests for birth defects?

edited March 2011 in First Trimester
Like chorionic villus sampling where they take part of the placenta to test the babies dna for defects.

Or

Amniocentesis where they take some embreotic fluid test skin cells and can be 99% sure of defects in the baby before birth.

Both have a slight chance of misscarrige and some ppl don't want to know if there child with half down syndrome or some life threating disorder.

Thought?

My partner wants to do it and know for a fact if something is wrong. The military will pay for mine, would you go for it out of pocket if you wanted it bad enough?
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Comments

  • My midwife.clinic.asked me about this. We don't have to pay for it here in Ontario but I decided against it. The initial screening only tells you your chances of having a child with such defects. It doesn't mean that your child.will. To find out if the defects.do exist, you have to put your child at risk. Granted, the risk is low but if I were to miscarry for ANY reason after getting it done, I would never be able to forgive myself
  • I wouldn't do it if I was you. Yes is can cause miscarriage also my pastors wife got it done and said she had high risk of down syndrome and he baby was totally fine. It can cause you to stress your whole pregnancy and then end up being nothing wrong with your baby. Congrats on baby thou =] best of luck
  • Well the screening will tell you the chances but the diagnostic will actually look at the babies chromosomes and can tell you for sure with the babies dna. Im still unsure I just got briefed on it today its still sinking in.
  • Omg don't do it unless birth defects run in ur family. I had it done and I was a TOTAL basketcase waiting for the results which finally caame back normal. The specialist told me unless birth defects run in ur fam, its added stess for a young healthy mom to go for, unless ur ob sees a medical need.
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  • Ohh plus there is a high chance for false positives, which again add more unecessary stress
  • Its a blood test. Don't do it. Least that's my opinion
  • @lmelanson - something doesn't sound right there. You should ask exactly what they're doing.
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  • I heard there's a 90% chance of a false positive i didn't get it done i didn't want the stress and I'm going to to love my baby all the same no matter how it comes out.
  • I would do nothing more than a finger pricl (which I did today) or a blood draw. If it isnt going to cause you to love your baby any more or less why take the chance of interrupting your pregnancy
  • Everyone has to decide for themselves if it's worth the risk, how they'd be able.to cope if they miscarry afterwards and what they would do with the information. If the plan is to terminate, realistically, you could be terminating a perfectly healthy baby. If the plan is to be better prepared when your child is born, is it really worth the risk? Those are the questions I struggled with. I k.ow that as much as I don't want a child with Downs syndrome, I wouldn't be terminating. And I decided the other reason I might want to test just isn't worth the risk to me
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  • We didn't do the test because no matter how he comes out we will l oved and its not something we wanted to stress over for
    9 months, plus the risk of miscarriage scared us.
  • *he will be loved
  • I chose not to do any of those... it wouldn't change a thing in my eyes. A baby is a baby and I will love him or her regardless. I don't see a need for any of those tests.
  • I really don't think that there a high risk of miscarrige, I had 3 amnios done for three diferent pregnancy and i didnt miscarry, the test to check if theres any liquid behind the neck is a nucul test, i just had one done last week and showed no fluid build up, but the test is only 80% accurate si im waiting to go ahead and get my amnio done to be 100% sure...
  • @lmelanson genetically the downs in ur family has to be a specific type of trisomy 23 for it to be carried down through generations. Try to find that out from the parents of the people who have downs in ur family. If it is the genetic carrier type u may want to do the blood test. If its the regular type of downs, don't do it. U will love ur baby no matter what. U can always do a lil research on downs to be prepaird just in case, but for me the stress I went through getting a blood test back that said abnormal was horrid. I got a special ultrasound done, and it was normal, so I went through grief for nothing. I hope this helps.
  • Also my specialist said there was .3% (yes 3 thenths of a percent) that an amenio can cause a m/c
  • I never got it done. Too many risk t the mother ad baby. The amnio test is done in the second or third trimester.
  • I was informed that the amenio had to be done by 18weeks for accuracy for the birth defects. Maybe its done later for other issues?
  • I had the cvs test done. There is no false positive with that test bc they actually do a genetic karotype test to actually count the chromosomes. There is a risk of miscarrying but if you go to an experienced dr you should be fine.
    I am not trying to scare anyone when I say this but to think you won't have a child with down syndrome because it doesn't run in your family is naive. I am living proof...i was 33, no medical issues, none detected with the baby...i delivered at 36 wks and an hour after she was born we were told that she displayed the physical characteristics of downs. Since I am prego with #3 I have learned what happened with our daughter was completely spontaneous like winning the lottery.
    So if your concerned, do the nuchal ultrasound and see if there are markers and go from there
  • Yeah 18 weeks is second trimester. I know when i went in for my ultrasound at 22 weeks they checked the fluid levels surrounding the baby.
  • It is a personal choice to have the cvs testing done. I am very anxious about it but I already lost my 5 1/2 month old daughter to cri-du-chat syndrome and I did not know until the day after she was born that anything was wrong. I am very fearful of the results of this test but I already have two special needs children and I do not place judgement on anyone for not wanting to get this test done. If I had to pay for the test out of pocket I definitely would, but I also think that it doesn't have to run in your family for something to be wrong. There is no history of generic problems in my family yet I had 3 children with genetic problems.
  • i did the nucle fold test a the u/s tech said it was positive he was fine but i was worried the whole time... the only way to know for sure is the more invasive testing ... that actualy looks at the dna
  • I have my blood testing tomorrow and my nuchal testing on the 9th... I was really excited about possibly seeing my baby's sex, but after reading this, I'm scared...
  • Yours will just be a u/s nothing like the tests I've mentioned that is strictly screening nothing evasive. No needles. No dna. Just a high tech u/s where the measure the fluid on your baby neck. Where they can get an idea if your baby has any issues. But that fluid will go away. And there is no fer sure results from this test they will just tell you if you're high risk or not
  • I chose to only have blood tests done but an u/s @ 24 weeks showed calcium on the heart which means an increased risk of down syndrome. I saw a specialist but was told the risk miscarriage or preterm delivery from doing any further testing was too high. Now I'm just left to worry/stress until delivery day. There really is nothing you can do to prepare, especially since the tests are not 100%. I would rather not know than to spend my entire pregnancy stressed or trying to prepare for something that may not even be true.
  • Im having my test done on monday. All im having done is the finger prick and the ultrasound. I wasn't offered an amio. And even if I were id tell them to suck it. If your not the person to abort why risk miscarrying the baby! I had to have an amio for my third daughter bc my screening came back that she could have downs. I didn't want to do it bc I wasn't going to abort. I already knew she could have it so I did my research. I prepaired myself but my ex wanted it. He was abusive so I didn't argue with him. They can tell that kind of stuff in ultrasounds . I had a horrible experience with the amio that's whyid never do it again. My daughter kept moving around th doc had to stab me 7 times he was afraid he was going to hurt her. Then when he finally got the Fluid it was bloody. Yes he was using an ultrasound to guide him but that didn't help her moving. Im sorry but if a doc tells u to have an amio just for the screening they just want ur money weather your paying or not. Your not suppose to have that test done unless its medically necessary. Good luck with everything girl. Follow your heart and don't second guess your self. Also don't let anyone else talk you into something you don't want!!!!!
  • I got my results back yesterday from my blood test and everything came back normal but it was a long 2week wait to get the results back. Now I go next week to get the u/s done to check out the other things.
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