Amniocentesis—a different perspective

A little context:

This is my second pregnancy, my first ended in miscarriage. This pregnancy I had two gestational sacks (twins), one just didn’t develop. And at my ultrasound the doctor couldn’t see the nose bone on the developed fetus.

So when she recommended I do the blood test for trisomy 13, 18, 21. I went with it. I had my finger pricked and they squeezed one drop of blood onto each of the three circles located on a card stock card. They sent it in and I didn’t think much of it.

A couple of weeks later I got a call from the OB department secretary saying that the doctor recommends I move forward with an amniocentesis because 1 out of 3 of the samples came back with intermediate risk. I went ahead and scheduled right then and there.

After getting off the phone I started thinking about it more. Should I do it? Is it worth the risks (albeit low, they are risks nonetheless)? The majority of posts on the topic here on Glow nurture are of people saying they would not risk it. I honestly started to stress about it and all these questions started flooding my brain:

-Which blood sample came back with intermediate risk?

-Is it related to the developing fetuses absent nasal bone? Or one of the other two trisomy syndromes?

-Could the additional non-gestational sac have affected the blood sample?

- Could I continue to carry knowing that I it is highly likely to lose my baby in a miscarriage or stillbirth or a few days after birth (in the case of trisomy 13, 18) ?

I kept thinking, really pondering on it for days. It was really stressful. I wish I had asked these questions when the secretary had called so I had a better idea of what decision to make—but the truth of the matter was that all my cognitive process was focused on speaking another language (I just moved to Portugal from the US). I could call, but the hospital is always understaffed.

I recently came to peace with the decision to move forward with the procedure. Sure, there are risks. And I HATE needles, but I want to be more informed. Seeing as how two out of three embryos didn’t develop, and one *may* have a marker indicating a genetic abnormality (just because she didn’t see the nasal bone doesn’t mean it’s not there, the ultrasound was super blurry), that in itself makes me want to take the potential risk to know more.

Has anyone in this group been recommended this procedure? If so, what was your decision?