genetic screening?

Question

What exactly is it? How could I get it done

Answer

Basically there's a low risk, medium risk, and high risk option offered. They wait until you're about 10-13 weeks along, so that your babies DNA has time to get into your blood stream. From there, they take some blood from your arm to run testing. They also do an ultrasound to measure the back of the baby's head, as this is an indication of some syndrome. I'm actually going to have it done on the 1st since my insurance covers it.

Answer

They do a blood test. If the results come back that you are high risk, then they do some more invasive testing. I don't know a whole lot about it. Maybe someone else could help but you should definitely talk to your doctor about it.

Answer

It's pretty complicated, all the options. When and why you might take them. The most helpful book I read was "Expecting Better". (If you don't have a lot of time just skip to the relevant chapter) It's written by a woman who is an economist. She makes sense of all the BS out there. By doing in depth studies into the research available on topics like testing, alcohol, caffeine etc. She goes all the way into the delivery room.

Most tests available are actually called screening (combination blood test & nuchal ultrasound) because all they do is give you a risk factor ie you have a 1 in 10,000 chance of baby having Downs. 1 in 250 is the cut off for invasive testing. Anything above that means you should be offered amnio or CVS, which are 100% accurate but invasive with their own risks.

I'm in a high risk category (1 in 150) before they've even done any screening, so I just jumped straight to CVS.

You should talk to your doctor but I really do advise reading that book befor you go in so you understand a bit more about it so you can make an informed decision and ask the right questions.

genetic screening?

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