Did you do the NT/prenatal screening?

katekat8721 · November 2013

At our office they do two series of blood tests and the NT ultrasound to look for abnormalities. They offer it to everyone but it's optional if you want to do it.

I'm kind of torn, since I'm relatively young and we have no history of genetic problems. At first I wanted to do it because I wanted to see the baby on ultrasound again (shame face) but now I'm worried, what if they find something questionable? It wouldn't change our ultimate outcome, it would just cause stress the whole pregnancy.

I'd love to know, if you had the choice and these weren't standard for you, were you torn on getting these tests done? Why or why didn't you decide to get them? On another note, if you chose not to do the NT screening did you do the MaterniT21 test instead? I've heard that's more reliable but correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks

CMDR513 · November 2013

I did it with both pregnancies. I got the Nuchal results that day and the blood work two weeks later at my OB appt. the results came out as a probability for both my age group and my results. I need to get the Sequential blood work within the next two weeks.

katekat8721 · November 2013

Thank you guys for the feedback

whoberry · December 2013

I'm doing it on Wednesday and I'm nervous as hell. I really wish we would have just screened our embryos before we did any transfers. If we end up having another FET down the road I would rather test the embyros and know they are fine than go through 13 weeks of getting my hopes up and then possibly getting bad news. But I've also had a trisomy before and family history of CF.

From what I've read on other posts, a lot of ladies skip the testing if it wouldn't change what they would do, but some in that position still do the testing so they can be as prepared as possible at delivery. AFM I don't know what we will do with the results. We will certainly consider all of our options. Good luck with your decision!

BlueEyedDreamer · December 2013

I did the NT scan. We didn't have any risk factors for abnormalities.

But these tests check for more than just downs - they check your placenta, etc. I think there is a BIG misconception out there that this is a test for abnormalities so that you can terminate if you want to. This was a helpful post that was on my BMB a while back: https://forums.thebump.com/discussion/9104619/nt-scans-can-we-have-a-serious-conversation-about-these#latest

After everything we'd been through to get pg, I thought it was important to know as much about our baby's health as possible and be prepared to take the best care of him. JMO.

katekat8721 · December 2013

Thank you guys very much! I realized I was just being scared and thinking it was easier to put my head in the sand than to deal with it. I don't know why, just silly! From what you all and the BMB girls have been saying it does seem to be a very good idea for multiple reasons. Knowledge is power!

kflynn81 · December 2013

We were going to but I hemmed and hawed too long and missed the time frame to have it done. We were then considering the quad screening but know people that had a false positive and so we opted to skip that as well.

jschwind22 · December 2013

I opted for the Harmony test, which is similar to the Maternity 21. I'm in the "knowledge is power" camp and if there was something wrong, I'd want to grieve it before my baby was here so that I could enjoy my baby arriving.

auntjessy · December 2013

Well, my OB, who is completely awesome and has been practicing longer than I've been alive (and who did my surgeries to prepare me for IVF as well) understood that I wouldn't want to terminate, but told me something that made me decide to do the test. He said that with multiples, it's really important to know if something is wrong with one baby so that if things start going badly, you don't make decisions that may put the other baby's life at risk. Specifically, he told me of a story just a few months back where a patient was expecting twins. Through the scans, they discovered that, sadly, one baby had one of the Trisomy disorders (sorry, can't remember which is which) and wasn't expected to survive. That baby started doing not-so-well in the womb towards the end of the pregnancy, but if they chose to deliver early, not knowing that the baby had this disorder, they could have put the other baby's life at risk. But because they knew, she waited to deliver, and although the baby passed away just hours after being born, the other baby was born strong and healthy. Granted, the odds of this are very low (and I'm sure everything will be fine with your LOs, just like with mine), but having that info about one can mean saving the life of the other. Plus, I did get to see the LOs on ultrasound for over an hour (they were uncooperative with the tech).

PhillyJ33 · December 2013

I didn't wind up doing it. They don't perform that testing at my OB office and they gave me a script to make an appointment with a genetic counselor if I wanted it done. That was at 9 weeks and by the time I decided to do it- I couldn't get an appointment in the timeframe anyways as they were booked. I didn't qualify to get the Harmony or Materni testing done since I am under 35 still and they only offer or those over 35 at my clinic.
I was nervous about not having it done in case they found anything that affected delivery but my OB said that anything like that should be discovered at the Anatomy Scan. I was also worried about false results causing more stress than necessary.
All in all, I think it's a very personal decision though.

BzeetyD · December 2013

Even though we knew we had a "genetically normal" embryo put back in, we still did the Harmony test and a light version of the NT scan. Since the Harmony test came back normal, they just did an overall growth check/scan and skipped the official NT part of it.

MJC1116 · December 2013

My old OB had us do it even though I was only 24 at the time. I was uninformed and thought it was just a routine part of prenatal care. (Color me naive to not do my research). The second time around, DH and I made a more informed decision to still go for it because of the reasons others have listed. Mainly it came down to me feeling like I'd worry if I didn't do the test. I want as much information as possible to avoid any surprises at birth.

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Did you do the NT/prenatal screening?

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