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Pregnant after 35
Hennessy
member
Did you chose to have an amnio?
Hennessy
member
I posted this on the 2nd Tri board also but since I'm over 40, I wanted to see if people AMA had a different perspective.
We have all the tests from our integrated screening and our risk ratio for DS has come back at 1 in 10,000. We are still debating having an amnio so we can have definitive results for any chromosomal issues.
To be totally candid, we are just not sure that we're prepared to take on a special needs child and would likely not continue with the pregnancy if we knew there was a confirmed problem. We know that this is a very personal decision, and not everyone feels this way but I'm curious what you did, if you had similar feelings. Did you definitely have or will you have an amnio?
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Re: Did you chose to have an amnio?
...baby #3 is here...
No one is here to judge you in your decision. It's a very personal choice, and one every mother has to make for herself, ultimately. I got an amnio. When I was pregnant at 18 with DD, I had "false positive" results for down syndrome. Not knowing sucked. This time, I decided I wanted to know definitively. I don't regret it for a second. I wouldn't have terminated, but I wanted to be able to prepare. Luckily, everything came back normal.
I can go into details about the procedure, if you like. For me, I wanted to know. And knowing was better than having "odds". The majority of babies born with Down Syndrome are to women between 18 and 25. Why? Because the majority of women having babies are between 18 and 25. So much for odds!
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I had my first at 37 and all of our test came back so good that we opted out of doing the amnio.
This time our first tests came back okay and the second test came back not so good - plus there were some concerns over the ventricles in the brain and my OBGYN strongly suggested that we do the amnio. Don't get him wrong, he isn't pushy - I know my doctor and his wife outside of the office and he wouldn't have told me that if he didn't know us on a personal level.
We did do an amnio with this baby more for information to know what we were dealing with than to make a decision. But everyone has to decide this for themselves and no one else can make this decision for you. I admit, it was a little scary having this done and I did find it a little painful during the procedure. But that could have been because I got stuck twice - first time they couldn't get the position that they wanted.
Doing the amnio was worth the peace of mind in the end and knowing for sure what is going on with the baby. I also had a fetal MRI to check on the brain which was amazing! They gave us a CD of the MRI so it is so cool to see the baby inside of me with all my organs squished around.
In the end it is a decision for you and your partner/husband to make whether you do the amnio or not. I found the information gathered from the amnio to be worth it.
I am 36 and my doctor never asked me if I wanted an amnio or CVS, which surprised me. I was all prepared for pressure to have the test and to tell him NO. He did offer the 1st tri screening, which I also declined.
I didn't want any of the testing because I knew that no matter what, I wouldn't terminate the pregnancy and I didn't want to do anything that might cause a miscarriage, no matter how small the risk. I also didn't want to spend my entire pregnancy worried about something I can't change.
I did the earlier test, CVS. I couldn't even get a ratio because I have a twin in there that didn't continue to grow and my body hasn't absorbed it yet so it would throw off my blood test numbers. They said the NT Scan looked great but I am a single mom (by choice, IVF) and 40 so I needed to know. I was a little scared but I drove two hours to go to the number 1 doctor on the west coast. He has done more than 28,000 CVS in his career so my risk went down to about 1/2 percent. Everything went fine, except waiting for the results almost pushed me over the edge! lol I even paid extra to find out in two days ( I can't imagine waiting 8-10 days!!). Everything came back great and its a BOY!! Good luck to you on your decision!! I have come to realize pregnancy can be slightly stressful!! LOL
To the OP - I responded to your original posting about this yesterday, but I wanted to add something. Be aware that over 90% of people who receive a diagnosis of a serious chromosomal issue choose to terminate the pregnancy. For whatever reason, having to do with demographics of who uses The Bump I suppose, it will often feel like a lot of people are against termination. I am not against termination - I think it is your choice for your family. There are chromosomal disorders I would terminate for, and those I would not. For ones that are fatal conditions, I would definitely choose to terminate. For something that is less serious, it would be on a case by case basis, and the decision is very personal. Either way, for me a ratio was NOT an answer, and I was not willing to base something so serious on chance. That is why I chose to have the amnio.
I hope that helps, and good luck figuring out what to do. I know it's difficult to know what will be best in advance.
I decided to have an amnio rather than the CVS. After all of my 1st trimester ultrasounds and bloodwork, including the ultrasound to measure the neck thickness for DS and blood markers for Trisomy 13 and 18, my odds of a DS child increased from 1 in 300 to 1 in 75. There was no evidence of 13 or 18. Due to the significant change, I made the decision to test further and chose the amnio over the CVS due to the smaller odds of miscarriage or defect being caused merely by the test itself. I am the type that needs to know, if possible, so that I can be best prepared. Although I agonized for over a week before making the final decision, I am very glad that I chose to have the amnio done.
I didn't find out I was pregnant until 6 months along, so we couldn't have changed course if the amnio had shown irregularities.
That said, I had it done. Both my husband and I are 40+ and the ultrasound showed an echogenic focii in our LO's heart, which is a possible risk sign for Downs. We wanted to be as prepared as possible, and didn't want any chance of the joy of her delivery being marred by a surprise diagnosis.
As it turned out, LO did not have any chromosomal issues.
The amnio itself was not nearly as bad as I had been warned. It took less than a minute for the actual fluid collection part and I was back at work within the hour.