@Austenista so sorry you're going through this. FWIW, a friend who is due in May had her NIPT done early on and it came back high risk. The doctor that gave her the results was confident the results were accurate. They found another dr and had a amnio done and that came back negative. All of her scans have looked great.
I hope you can get more answers soon. Hugs!
*TW LC*
Me & MH: 32 DS: 6/1/18 (Pre-E; IUGR; seizures; NICU) TTC #2: 12/2019 Sept 2020: HSG possible blocked right tube Nov 2020: Letrozole + TI - BFN Dec 2020: Letrozole + TI - BFP!!! EDD 9/18
@Austenista lots of hugs and fx for you. I have definitely read how unreliable the tests are. I hope they move along quickly for you so you can have some relief.
@austenista I hope these results come back quickly for you. After I had my b/w done I googled frantically about results (before I even received mine) and saw that the false positive rate was higher than what I'd assumed. FX for you!
@Austenista - Getting news like that during pregnancy is devastating. I know when I received results of DS2's heart defect after my a/s I had the biggest roller coaster of emotions. Huge hugs, because I know what you're experiencing. The internet can be a scary place when you're googling. Many times people talk about the horror stories vs. successful stories, but success stories are indeed out there. I pray that you get a false positive.
However, if your child does have downs, I want to offer some advice. In so many ways I am relieved that I found out about DS2 before he was born. I had time to mentally grieve for the healthy, problem free baby I thought I was having and come to terms with our "new normal" and what it would mean to have a baby with a heart defect (the surgeries and complications that go with it). I cannot even imagine the shock of finding out something like that upon birth when your hormones are even more heightened. I think I would have had a much harder time bonding with DS2 if I had found out after birth. As it was, finding out during pregnancy I knew what was coming and was able to prepare myself for it.
I'm here if you need to talk, vent, etc.
First Son - born 2013
Second Son - born 2014 - Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) and Double Outlet Right Ventricle (DORV). First open heart surgery at 5 days old. He's had 3 open heart surgeries and several other procedures and is currently doing amazing. Third Son - due June 9, 2018
@mytinc I think about this a lot with my MIL. MH was born with a cleft lip and palate as well as his fingers on both hands webbed together and undeveloped (obviously not as life threatening as CHD or other defects) but in 1988 they had no prenatal testing or ultrasounds. I can't imagine how emotional it would be to have your expectations shattered like that. Idk how many surgeries MH had but his mom counts the number of times he had to go under anesthesia and it was 20 before the age of 2.
I'm glad you were able to emotionally and physically prepare yourself for your son's condition.
*TW LC*
Me & MH: 32 DS: 6/1/18 (Pre-E; IUGR; seizures; NICU) TTC #2: 12/2019 Sept 2020: HSG possible blocked right tube Nov 2020: Letrozole + TI - BFN Dec 2020: Letrozole + TI - BFP!!! EDD 9/18
@Austenista I hope your labs come back as soon as possible so that you will have a better idea of what may be going on. Fingers crossed for good news. I will be thinking of you!
@Austenista -- Sending you so much love and hugs right now. I'm right there with you.
There's a 5% (not 50% as a PP said) rate of false positives on the quad screen, which is still exponentially high when it comes to medical tests. Like... obscenely high. I'm not worrying too much about my own results, and I wouldn't worry too much about your own. The test isn't all-conclusive, it's a test for the "chance" of having a baby with XYZ. They can't make any diagnosis or determination purely from the quad screen. My mother apparently got a false positive with me, and H has a friend who got a false positive with his daughter. I'm sure if I'd asked around, I would find a few more people I know who got false positives with their children as well. It's a catch-22; you can learn about a potential diagnosis before birth and start to prepare for it and handle it, or you can worry unnecessarily about the result you get.
I had that last-minute/quick ultrasound on Monday, but even though she took great pictures, she still wasn't able to really see all LO's organs, which would help with determining whether there's an issue or not. So I still have to go back for an actual a/s, and if I decide to, I could get a level 2 done.
I'd contact the office in any case if it would make you feel any better to get an ultrasound done. I don't know when you're scheduled for your a/s, but if they take good pictures, it'll likely take place of the a/s. You can always ask your doctor's office about the option. As I mentioned in my posts, my doctor was pretty clear about the fact that it's a good move for your doctor's own benefit to offer you the level 2 u/s because it can be considered neglect if they don't. My physician didn't offer it to me until the day after I got the results and had the u/s done. Don't feel bad that you haven't been offered it yet.
@izza2 thank you so much. Information is power for me here, and for whatever reason just talking to you guys and to my Dec'16 group about it today (I've been off the internet since Sunday) has actually made me feel 1000x better. I was internalizing and it was causing my anxiety to spiral. I've decided what will be will be, and deep down I feel like my child is healthy. My OB also said she thought everything was fine but that she wanted to follow up with the NIPT. I've decided that I'm going to tell myself everything is fine until I'm told otherwise. A friend in my D'16 group said that with her first she kept getting DS positives on every test until her daughter was born and then she was perfectly normal. What anxiety and stress she must have went through! I agree that it's good to know in advance if you can, but I think for me, in future, I'm going to refuse tests like these unless they have a strong suspicion from U/S that things are amiss. I don't think the anxiety is worth it in the long run for me. I refused with DS.
My A/S isn't until Feb.12th. I'm not sure why it was scheduled then, I even tried to get an earlier date when I scheduled and they they wouldn't. Maybe they were booked, idk, but I'll be 21.5wks then. So if there's something that flags on this NIPT I'd like to go ahead and have them take a look and not wait. That said, I know that even taking a look at things can be misleading. Last pregnancy, I had an U/S person at the hospital via L&D monitoring determine I had super low amniotic fluid and freaked everyone out about it. I went into the office the following Monday and they looked there and determined everything was perfectly normal. That was a long, scary weekend where I did too much googling about low amniotic fluid and the risks. SO, all that to say, I'm ready to just declare (in faith) that everything is fine with my baby because honestly there's no way to 100% know until they come out anyway and stop worrying. We're going to love this baby one way or another. That said, when I do know something from the NIPT results, I'll share with y'all. At the very least, we can just be excited to get to find out what we're having a bit earlier than we were expecting. Aggressive and reckless positivity right here.
@austenista I had similar issues with DS. Mine didn't say 'positive'. Mine said 1 in 20 chance. And a normal 30 yr old should have a chance of 1 in thousands. So I spent a whole wkend crying. A whole wkend. Then we decided not to test any further. No amnio. No NIPT. We decided it wouldn't change how we felt about him anyway. In the end, he came our perfectly fine. I know every situation is different but I wanted you to hear a GOOD outcome of this scare. There's so many false positives. Keeping you in my thoughts.
me:35 DH:34 DS: born oct 2012 TFAS: BFP #1 aug16. miscarriage sept16 BFP #2 nov16 MMC dec16. d&c jan17 BFP #3 sept17 EDD 5/31/18 fingers crossed for our rainbow baby
@Austenista I'm glad you shared with us and that you feel better after doing so. I know I always feel better after I let things out. Everything feels so much more dramatic in my head.
@Austenista I am sorry that you are in the “unknown” and am sure that is really stressful. While I wouldn’t get too worried just yet, due to the possibility of false positive results, my nephew has Down Syndrome. If you have any questions or need to talk to someone, I’m happy to help!
Re: Weekly Appointments (1/15)
I hope you can get more answers soon. Hugs!
DS: 6/1/18 (Pre-E; IUGR; seizures; NICU)
TTC #2: 12/2019
Sept 2020: HSG possible blocked right tube
Nov 2020: Letrozole + TI - BFN
Dec 2020: Letrozole + TI - BFP!!! EDD 9/18
Husband: 35
Married: June 2007
Son Max born 1/10/17
BFP #2: 10/5/17; EDD: 6/11/18
However, if your child does have downs, I want to offer some advice. In so many ways I am relieved that I found out about DS2 before he was born. I had time to mentally grieve for the healthy, problem free baby I thought I was having and come to terms with our "new normal" and what it would mean to have a baby with a heart defect (the surgeries and complications that go with it). I cannot even imagine the shock of finding out something like that upon birth when your hormones are even more heightened. I think I would have had a much harder time bonding with DS2 if I had found out after birth. As it was, finding out during pregnancy I knew what was coming and was able to prepare myself for it.
I'm here if you need to talk, vent, etc.
First Son - born 2013
Third Son - due June 9, 2018
I'm glad you were able to emotionally and physically prepare yourself for your son's condition.
DS: 6/1/18 (Pre-E; IUGR; seizures; NICU)
TTC #2: 12/2019
Sept 2020: HSG possible blocked right tube
Nov 2020: Letrozole + TI - BFN
Dec 2020: Letrozole + TI - BFP!!! EDD 9/18
There's a 5% (not 50% as a PP said) rate of false positives on the quad screen, which is still exponentially high when it comes to medical tests. Like... obscenely high. I'm not worrying too much about my own results, and I wouldn't worry too much about your own. The test isn't all-conclusive, it's a test for the "chance" of having a baby with XYZ. They can't make any diagnosis or determination purely from the quad screen.
My mother apparently got a false positive with me, and H has a friend who got a false positive with his daughter. I'm sure if I'd asked around, I would find a few more people I know who got false positives with their children as well. It's a catch-22; you can learn about a potential diagnosis before birth and start to prepare for it and handle it, or you can worry unnecessarily about the result you get.
I had that last-minute/quick ultrasound on Monday, but even though she took great pictures, she still wasn't able to really see all LO's organs, which would help with determining whether there's an issue or not. So I still have to go back for an actual a/s, and if I decide to, I could get a level 2 done.
I'd contact the office in any case if it would make you feel any better to get an ultrasound done. I don't know when you're scheduled for your a/s, but if they take good pictures, it'll likely take place of the a/s. You can always ask your doctor's office about the option. As I mentioned in my posts, my doctor was pretty clear about the fact that it's a good move for your doctor's own benefit to offer you the level 2 u/s because it can be considered neglect if they don't. My physician didn't offer it to me until the day after I got the results and had the u/s done. Don't feel bad that you haven't been offered it yet.
Me: 30 | DH: 34 | DSS: 14 | DS: 4
PG #2, EDD 10/12/2023
My A/S isn't until Feb.12th. I'm not sure why it was scheduled then, I even tried to get an earlier date when I scheduled and they they wouldn't. Maybe they were booked, idk, but I'll be 21.5wks then. So if there's something that flags on this NIPT I'd like to go ahead and have them take a look and not wait. That said, I know that even taking a look at things can be misleading. Last pregnancy, I had an U/S person at the hospital via L&D monitoring determine I had super low amniotic fluid and freaked everyone out about it. I went into the office the following Monday and they looked there and determined everything was perfectly normal. That was a long, scary weekend where I did too much googling about low amniotic fluid and the risks. SO, all that to say, I'm ready to just declare (in faith) that everything is fine with my baby because honestly there's no way to 100% know until they come out anyway and stop worrying. We're going to love this baby one way or another. That said, when I do know something from the NIPT results, I'll share with y'all. At the very least, we can just be excited to get to find out what we're having a bit earlier than we were expecting. Aggressive and reckless positivity right here.
DS: 6/1/18 (Pre-E; IUGR; seizures; NICU)
TTC #2: 12/2019
Sept 2020: HSG possible blocked right tube
Nov 2020: Letrozole + TI - BFN
Dec 2020: Letrozole + TI - BFP!!! EDD 9/18
Husband: 35
Married: June 2007
Son Max born 1/10/17
BFP #2: 10/5/17; EDD: 6/11/18
DS: born oct 2012
TFAS: BFP #1 aug16. miscarriage sept16
BFP #2 nov16 MMC dec16. d&c jan17
BFP #3 sept17 EDD 5/31/18
fingers crossed for our rainbow baby