Pregnant after 35
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Is it necessary to do amnio?
Hi,
I am new to the Bump and I am in my 17th week. I am 36 this year. The friends I spoke to (including my own doctors) all have very different views on amino. Some of them said that I don't need to take the risk of having a miscarriage or complications, yet some said that as long as you're over 35 it is highly recommended regardless of the tests I have done. My first test came out clean and I have just done AFP last week. The second test will be done in my 20th week. I'd like to know your views about having an amnio. My husband and I are trying to decide what we should do. Thanks a lot!
Wennie
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Re: Is it necessary to do amnio?
Wennie,
It all depends on what you would do with the information you received from the amnio.
I am 35, and didn't have any special testing done with my PG. I knew that I wasn't going to do anything differently, so why bother. If you would consider ending your PG because of amnio results then have it done. If you would never consider ending your PG because of test results then don't have it done.
EA
DH and I decided not to do anything after we received the AFP results. I'm 36, but will be 37 next month. 1 in 805 for Downs, 1 in 749 for Trisomy 18 and <1 in 5000 for neural tube defects. Since these were all below my 'acceptable' range for my age, we're done. It wouldn't change the outcome for us and I really didn't want an amnio if I didn't 'need' it
~Jennie
I have had an amino with both of my babies. DD NT results came back 1 in 35 chance of downs so I had to know if there was a real problem. Thankfully she was perfectly healthy - however when she was born the dr doing the newborn exam discovered she had a small hole at the base of hte spine....we had to do an mri to find out if it was an open hole (Neural tube defct/spina bifada) or a closed hole (strictly a cosmetic issue). Thankfully again we got lucky and it was closed hole so no medical issues - it basically looks like a little dimple above her bum.
With DS, his NT results came back great- however with the scare we had with DD regarding the neural tube defects we chose to do the amnio to see if he had an issue with that. That is something that can possible be corrected inutero or at the very least you should have special dr's on hand at deliery to deal with.
I wanted to have as much information as possible about both my babies so we could deal with it. It doesn't have to be about terminating a pg.
Good luck with your decision.
Ditto this- I'm just the kind of person who has to know what I'm dealing with so I'm prepared as best as I can be.
IUI- BFN IVF #1 -BFP! Allie is our 2nd IVF baby. Born at 36 1/2 weeks after pre-e again
I got pregnant at 41, will deliver at 42. Our bloodwork came back okay except for the Down Syndrome part (1:10) so we had the big u/s and all checked out okay. We know there is still a risk of D/S but at this age, if we had complications due to the amnio, who knows if we could conceive again. We would not terminate regardless and even if we found out she was a Downs baby, we would not know how severe. We know her major organs are fine and my OB is doing another u/s at 28 weeks to check again so we can make sure a specialist does not have to be with us at Delivery.
Basically, we opted out of it due to the risks and my age and DH was probably more against it than me. We are just leaving it in God's hands.
^^ well said.
ETA: Amnio is not necessary and you do not have to have it if you choose not to. Good luck!
I decided against it. It scared the heck out of me to get one done. All of my screens and ultrasounds are showing the baby is healthy and normal and I feel comfortable with what I have seen/heard.
If I had had a bad screening, I may have changed my mind. I was open to an Amnio - just didn't want one.
GL, it can be a tough decision.
This. I am one of the statistics--a person whose amnio did not come back fine, because my son has T21. I'm too emotionally drained today to go into it, but as you can imagine it's been a rough adjustment and a lot of shock--something I wouldn't want to have to process on the birth day. Plus, they have just recently found some health issues with him that I doubt they would have found if I weren't having constant ultrasounds (at his 'big' ultrasound he looked fine and there were no problems) due to the T21.
I would at least get the regular non invasive tests done and then go from there if they don't go well (when I was still in my 30s that's what I did). Since I was 40 this time around I skipped everything and went straight for the amnio.
Best of luck in whatever you decide, but like the pp mentioned amnio is not just for people who would terminate. There are a lot of good reasons to find out ahead of time.
Thank you Iris and everyone. This is really a very difficult decision for us. I have some friends including family members from Asia and according to them it seems that amnio is so highly recommended to women who are over 35 there. My own sister who was 40 when she had her second child had one too.
I think I pretty much agree with you that I would like to have a full understanding of my baby's condition as much as I can so there will not be harsh surprises when the baby was born if god forbid something went wrong. Thank you all for your very valuable postings. I will have a discussion with my hubby and hope that we will make a sound decision. Thanks again!