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Indiana Babies
Mother's Day, 2011
Quad screen--did you do it? WDYT?
We have to decide whether we're going to get the quad screen test done. It'll be most accurate in the next two weeks, so we need to decide fairly soon.
Here are the things we're trying to weigh:
-We know that the rates of the four disorders are fairly low
-I ate pretty darn healthy food, but wasn't taking a multivitamin regularly before getting pregnant (3-4 times a week, but not daily)
-If we found out conclusively that Bugbear would be born with a disability, we would lean strongly toward finding a family to adopt him/her that would be better able to love and care for him/her than we could
-We wouldn't want amnio or CVS unless the probability of a positive result were equal to or higher than the rate of miscarriage
So...
Did you do prenatal screening? Why/not?
Given the various baggage I listed, any thoughts on what seems like the better choice for us to make?
(Obviously whether we do the screening and what we do from there is our decision, I know that. But we just spent 3 hours going around about this and need some outside thoughts. Apparently him specializing in the meaning of choices and me specializing in argument means that decision making can be very difficult!)
Mother's Day, 2011
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Quad screen--did you do it? WDYT?
We did not do the quad screen w/ Jackson, or Scarlett. But w/ Scarlett we did the NT scan. The NT scan is more accurate, which is why we did it - the quad screen is not as accurate, which is why we skipped it (I think 60-70% accurate? NT scan was something like 90-95%).
I would lean towards skipping it if I were you since your risks are low - as you know with Jackson, I was not doing anything to prepare my body for pregnancy, including drinking a lot before I knew. To be perfectly honest, we chose to do the NT scan to see the baby and because our insurance covered it, not because we were overly concerned one way or the other about our risks, so I'm probably the worst person in the world to ask.
The other thing is - they do a lot at the big u/s with measurements and finding issues as well, so as naive as it is, we were just like, "well if something's wrong, we'll find out then." Even though it's not really the same kind of test.
It's hard for me to really say - I was super clueless when pg with Jackson. Blissfully ignorant, you know? This time I've been more paranoid and wanting more info, more tests, etc.
We didn't do it for the exact same reasons as the pp. It wouldn't have changed anything for us. Plus the false positives are so HIGH. Why get worked up over nothing???
Now if I had a strong family history or were at a higher risk, maybe that would be different. Well, no. Now that I think about it. Our babies will be our babies, whatever happens.
This. We didn't do it!
Same for me. We didn't do it and I won't with the next one.
We didn't because 1. We knew it wouldn't change our feelings about the baby and if something was wrong I'd probably rather enjoy the pregnancy than spend every second worrying and stressing. 2. There is a really high rate of false positives. I've known two people who had to get additional tests done because their babies were suspected to have Downs after the quad. Both have perfectly healthy children and they both said the stress was not worth it and they'd never have it done with future children. 3. They look for abnormalities during the 20wk ultrasound anyway. No, it's not the same as the tests, but any major abnormalities are likely to be found.
I had the quad screen done b/c of age and it came back abnormal and then had to have a high level u/s done. They found nothing, but but in the week between the news of the abnormal screen and the u/s.... we were a complete mess and thought through everything. Ultimately we would still love and keep the baby no matter what so I think it was more or less trying to mentally prepare.
Since you said if you found out the baby would have a disability you would give it up, then I would say yes to do the test that way you can prepare. More than likely everything will be fine and normal, but if not then at least you would be able to prepare if it's going to change your minds as to if you keep the baby or not.
BFP #2 11/4/12 EDD 7/20/12 missed M/C 12/13/12 @8w5d D&C 12/21/12
DX 2/7/13 with an alloimmunity + for anti-paternal antibodies started Lovenox daily & BA
BFP 2/16/13 EDD 10/28/13
We did it.
My insurance wouldn't pay for the NT scan, but they paid for the quad screen. My OB strongly recommended it because of my age. Since I'll be even older for baby #2, I'm guessing we'll do either the NT scan or quad screen or both depending on insurance.
We did not do it... insurance wouldn't cover it.
I routinely had U/S (something like 6w, 14w, 18w, 21w, 24w, 28w, 30w, 32w, 34w, 36w, 37w, 38w, 39w - seriously) because of my GD (and I knew I'd be having a ton of U/S since I was diagnosed at 8w). I figured if there was something wrong, we would have seen it.
I did the quad screen with DS #1 and both the NT scan and quad screen with DS #2. With DS #2 I was a little bit older (33) and wanted the peace of mind.
It wouldn't have changed how we carried on with the pregnancy or whether or not we kept the child. We would raise the child no matter what the results were.
Insurance paid for all of it - if I would have had to pay out of pocket, I probably wouldn't have done it. We have very very low risks on both sides. I wanted to be prepared should the baby have had a disorder. As it was, at DS #2's mid-point u/s, they did detect an abnormality with his kidney at which point I started getting regular u/s at a perinatologist's office. Turns out he's only got one functional kidney. Those ultrasounds can see quite a bit of information, but they're not completely conclusive.
If I were you and my insurance was going to pay for it, I would do it.
Sara
I'm late to this, but Krista, given what you said about wanting to be prepared for adoption, I'd do it. Think about the "worst case scenario" (if you can call it that) - you don't do the test, Bugbear is born with a disability, and you still in your heart would want to find an adoptive family. Doesn't allow you much time, does it? Or, if you think you could handle that stress, or if you think you'd end up not finding an adoptive family, then skip the test.
That being said, I didn't do it and I'm very glad I didn't. We didn't do any of the optional tests for the reasons most women mentioned above.
GL with your decision!