Sequential screen?

gwtm

Hi! I am 37yo pregnant with my third.  I never had any of the screening tests in my other pregnancies due to the fact that I was 30 and then 33.  This time around I am AMA and trying to decide what to do.  Termination is not an option, but the fear of the unknown is weighing heavily on me.  Any advice or personal experience is appreciated. thank you!

kissofjade

I had a false positive for down syndrome with my now healty 7 year little girl. It made for the most stressful pregnancy with lots of extra unnecessary testing like genetics and so on... I will never do any of that type of screening again. My daughter does not have downsyndrome and we didn't get the news that she  didn't have it untill she was born. Worst 9 months of my life... If you going to keep your beautiful baby no matter what then my suggestion is don't put your self through it. What ever will be will be.. just enjoy your pregnancy good luck

newenglander71

After our first trimester screening, our odds of DS was 1:100.  Even though there was only a 1% chance of DS, we chose to proceed with a CVS to find out definitively one way or the other.  I knew that I would drive myself crazy focusing on the 1% for the rest of my pregnancy.  The CVS went fine and our results were all good and I really felt that at that point I was able to enjoy the rest of my pregnancy.  I am one of those people who likes information and I wanted to know exactly what we were dealing with, but not everyone feels this way. 

benoitfan

I did integrated prenatal screening with both my pgs. 

It involves an NT u/s at 12wish, and a 1st tri blood draw that same day.  Then you go back a month later for another blood draw.  They feed these numbers along with your age into a computer and come up with a risk assessment for Downs syndrome, trisomy 13 and trisomy 18 and spinal bifida.

Based on those results (screen negative or screen positive) you may be offered additional testing (amnio - invasive or one of the new non-invasive blood tests) to give a definite diagnosis.

Personally, I chose to do the IPS because I wanted to know if my baby may need special care during delivery or post delivery.  I would not have terminated, but I wanted to ensure my baby had the best care possible.  My hospital does have a NICU, but it is not designed to handle anything too complicated.  If I were to have a special needs child, I would have to go to a hospital about an hour from my home and I would feel awful if I didn't have the testing and didn't know about these potential issues before I actually delivered.