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March 2012 Moms
Confused about NT Scan - To do or not to do?
Yesterday was my first OB appointment, which went great! During the exam my doc talked to me about the genetic testing that can be done around week 12. I'm noticing that many of you are doing these tests. I guess I'm still kind of confused about the tests and I'm wondering if it's really necessary. DH thinks we should not do them and thinks it will just give us more to stress about. I'm still kind of up in the air about it. I am 29 and DH is 32. We have no history of any disorders in our families. Wouldn't we be considered low risk anyway? I feel like my doctor didn't really go over all of this that well and we discussed it at the very end of our appointment as she was kind of headed out the door. What were your reasons for deciding to do or not to do these tests? I apologize if this was discussed recently I just feel that I need some more info about the tests... false positives, if it's really necessary ( my doc mentioned that they used to do these tests only on expectant mothers over the age of 35 ). I guess I'm just wondering if it's just an unnecessary procedure to go through and to possibly pay for (haven't even looked in to how my insurance deals with this... another issue!)
TIA!
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Re: Confused about NT Scan - To do or not to do?
We didn't do with DD. We also didn't have any history of disorders with our family and also there are a lot of false positives with that test. Case in point, my friend had it done and they told her she had a 1:250 chance her baby had downs. The baby is fine. She was under SO much stress and they wanted to do amnios etc. All for nothing.
Even if the baby had Downs we wouldn't abort so I really don't see the point in doing the test. We're going to pass.
I did it with my first pregnancy and will not be doing it with this one. We were considered low risk, but I did it anyway. My results came back that I was at a heightened risk for DS. I didn't want to do further testing because of the risk of m/c so they just did a couple more ultrasounds. The doctor said everything looked normal, but couldn't tell me for sure without the further testing. It was a stressful couple of weeks and I finally just had to believe everything was ok (which it turned out to be). DS is perfectly healthly.
Needless to say, I don't want to put myself through that again since I know I won't do any further testing.
DH and I decided not to do any testing because of two major reasons 1 - we wouldn't terminate the pregnancy if something were to be wrong and 2 because I don't want to have an amniocentesis (there is a risk that it could cause you to lose the baby).
I would probably worry if I had them done and agree that at your 20 week ultrasound they can detect issues.
I did it with DD because my insurance covered it and I thought it would be nice to see the baby.
Now my insurance isn't covering it so I won't be doing it. The results wouldn't matter because I would not terminate. That being said I am opting to do the quad-screening instead which tests for the same risk factors. Again I won't terminate, but I would want to know if my baby won't survive past birth.
It's a personal decision, but I would check with your insurance because it can be costly.
There are several other disorders the testing can detect. Most of the rest of them are fatal.
My reasons: 1. Insurance pays for it 2. I have a compulsive need-to-know thing going on and if something's possibly wrong I want to be aware of it 3. I selfishly want the extra ultrasound
Whatever you do I'm sure it'll be the right decision! Good luck!
DH & I are not doing it. We wouldn't terminate the pregnancy if I was positive and if I get a false positive or "high risk" results I'd just stress over it and that's not good for me or baby. Even the consideration of being able to prepare for a baby with Down Syndrome (or similar) would just stress me out with thoughts of "OMG, how are we going to handle this?!"
If the baby comes and he/she has problems, we'll deal with it then. The only genetic testing we did was pre-pregnancy because of a history of cystic fibrosis in my family and we wanted to make sure we did not both carry the gene mutation (I do, DH doesn't).
Even though we wouldn't abort our baby, we are still choosing to have the test. It's my understanding that there really isn't such a thing as a false positive. Your odds either come back low or high. While coming back with high odds like 1 in 6 will be a little stressful, we decided that knowing we may have to deal with additional medical costs down the road is worth it. We are planners through and through, and would really like to be prepared for the extra care the baby would need. Being new parents is going to be stressful enough that we don't want to pile on the to-do's. Of course, this is an extremely personal decision, and you and your H need to be the ones to decide.
Also - I want to see the baby again. The only other u/s I get is at 20 weeks.
"Go Phils"
Norah Elizabeth - 3.19.12
I was gung-ho about doing the NY scan and taking it from there. However, after speaking with the OB nurse extensively about it yesterday, I'm up in the air now. I think I'd go into severe panic mode if I screened positive, even though that doesn't mean that something is definitely wrong.
No test is 100% reliable, screening negative doesn't mean the baby will be completely healthy and screening positive doesn't mean the child will definitely be disabled.
I don't know what to do. I don't want to make myself crazy over the possibilities...
I have the NT scan scheduled but I can always cancel it.
You're right it does but again, we'd rather wait. Stress is not something I need, my body does NOT respond well at all. It's a personal choice for sure.
All of this...
Welcome to the world, Baby W: born on 3/8/12 @ 3:49pm - 8lb 11 oz, 22 in.
This. We're skipping out on them as well.
We are not doing it. We talked to our doctor about it for about 10 minutes and just determined that we would not be willing to do the amnio (1 in every 200 woman miscarry from the amnio). And basically, if we are not willing to do the amnio then we thought the NT scan was pointless-if we are given a high risk factor we were just going to have to live with the stress and worry that something might be wrong.
He did say that 95% of his patients do not do the NT scan-he thinks that it generally leads to more stress than good for patients.
Our anatomy scan (scheduled for 16 weeks) will give us any information that week need to know.
We are doing it for a few reasons.
1.) My doctor likes to know ahead of time if there will be any extra curve balls at birth.
2.) I want to see that baby again!
3.) Insurance covers it.
4.) I have a nephew with downs, and my brother and sister-in-law would have been lost without all the preparations they made before his birth. Getting his medical care set up, having a high risk doctor at birth (he ended up having to be air lifted to a children's hospital anyway), researching and learning as much as they could, and my SIL ended up quitting her job because with all their research they figured it would be cheaper to have her stay home with him. If it comes back we have a heightened risk of anything we will not be terminating, I would just like to know ahead of time.
Like PP said, it's totally a personal decision. If I didn't have this experience, I might not do it....
Georgia 3/15/2012 Matilda 6/12/2014 TWINS!! Babies 3&4 EDD 11/22/2016
We decided not to do it.I thought that regardless of which results that test showed (whether accurate or falsely positive/negative), we would be keeping the child. I also felt that if anything did pop up (especially if it were a positive), it would just stress us out (and possibly stress the baby).
As for false positives, my aunt was given a false positive and she had to keep getting tests done during the pregnancy, but when the baby was born, she was perfectly healthy.
This. my girlfriend stressed out for weeks and ended up getting an amnio to find out that her DD is perfectly healthy. Nothing would change our minds about baby, so we passed on all testing with our first, and won't be testing this time either. Everyone has to make the best decision for themselves.
This is a very good point. Whether one chooses to terminate or not is not the only thing to think about. I have seen the expense (in time, money and general mental health of the parents) that it takes to raise a special needs child. Especially if you live in a small town and need to commute multiple times a week at first to specialists in the nearest large city. Gas, hotel rooms... Plus, if the disability is severe enough, the option of having one stay at home parent could really help. That is usually not a choice that a couple can make once the baby comes. If my baby were born with that type of disability my husband and I could not say, "Well, one of us is going to have to quit our job in a couple of weeks." We would loose our home. Having six months to plan something like that out could help.