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February 2016 Moms
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At-home blood sample for Nuchal Translucency?

katelin318katelin318 member
in February 2016 Moms
Hi Ladies,
I posted this on the March board too, but since I'm due 3/3 I thought it might be helpful to post here too since more of you may have gone through the NT screening already.  Has anyone had to do an at-home blood sample for their Nuchal Translucency screening?  They call it an Instant Risk Assessment where you send the blood sample in advance so they can give you the combined results the day of the ultrasound.  The way this office does the advance blood sample is they give you an at-home finger prick kit where you do it yourself and mail it in to a lab.  There's a little sterile packet with two finger prickers and a "blood spot card" with five circles you are supposed to dab your finger on to collect the samples.  Anyway, I'm just nervous that I didn't provide enough blood and I won't get my results.  The five circles are about the size of a dime, and the instructions say your sample should fill them at least 75%, but then they also give you a little piece of paper with a hole punched in it (about the size of a regular hole-punch), and say to use that to measure if your sample is large enough.  I don't think any of my five circles were 75% full, but most of them were the size of the hole punch (one was a little bit smaller).  I found it difficult b/c they say to only use one drop per circle, not to layer multiple drops, so I would wait until the drop on my finger looked like it was about to roll off, then dabbed it on the card, and the sample didn't seem nearly big enough!  I'm also not great with needles so I was nervous, and I waited until the last possible day to do my sample so I can't get another card from my doctor.  Anyway, I know there's nothing I can do at this point, but I just thought I'd put it out there to see if anyone else had any experience with this, and if maybe my smallish samples will be okay.  Thanks, and sorry for the long post/explanation!
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Re: At-home blood sample for Nuchal Translucency?

  • bublesmiledbublesmiled member
    Never heard of a home kit, but I could see it. I had to do the same 5 drops in the office, so it seems like a similar if not the same test.

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  • Monkeybutt80Monkeybutt80 member
    I had to do the take home finger prick test with my last pregnancy. I was also concerned because one or two of the samples seemed smaller than what they recommended but got the results back without an issue. I don't think you need to worry.
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  • FreshBakedBrowniesFreshBakedBrownies member
    When I had mine done (at the hospital where my ultrasound was performed), I got into a discussion about the drops of blood on the card with the nurse. They had to prick me twice since they couldn't get enough drops from the first poke.
    Anyhow, she mentioned this one woman who had really cold hands and they could barely get the tiniest drop of blood for each spot on the card, no matter what they tried. She said she was nervous that it wouldn't be enough and that the person would have to come back and repeat it, but it was fine.
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  • katelin318katelin318 member
    Thanks so much for the feedback, ladies.  I kind of feel like "Isn't this too important to leave in my incompetent hands?!" :) but I'm hoping they make these tests pretty idiot-proof for that reason.  Glad to hear it has gone well for everyone else.  Thanks.
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