I missed the screening

[EmmaHealy23]

At my 12 week scan the sonographer asked if I wanted the blood test for downs & Edwards & Pataus. I said yes but was visibly anxious and she said why don't I leave it as it might worry me more. She said I could have it at 20 weeks anyway.

Then when I got to 20 wk scan they said I'd missed the screening.

I've no reason to suspect I'm high risk and no markers or problems have came up at any of the scams.

Just wondering if it would likely have been picked up at the ultrasound? They said all scams have been great, no problems, but it's nagging at the back of my mind worrying me

Are there any non invasive tests I could ha d at this stage (24 weeks). If it was Downs we would still obviously want the baby but the other two sound a lot more serious.

You can have the harmony test but it's only available privately- costs about £300ish. It's a blood test.

You said yes and they didn't go ahead? She was wrong when she advised you that you could have those tests later. God, I would complain. That's ridiculous.

Some trusts do offer Harmony now. I rather think yours should be providing it to you given the misinformation they gave you.

Well what happened was that she said if I wasn't going to have the Amnio anyway I might as well not have it done as it might cause me extra anxiety. She said they can do it at the 20 week scan but my 20 week scan was 20+2 and they refused.

I just wondered if they would likely have picked it up by ultrasound? I haven't heard of the Harmony test, what does it entail?

Oh sorry, I see it's a blood test. I really wish I'd have just had the blood test, but at the time I was s bit of a mess, I was so excited to see I'd made it to 12 weeks that I didn't bother to argue with her.

She was very nice, I just wish I'd stood up for myself more.

If the scams themselves looked fine do you think that would be enough? I'm not sure I could raise £300 unfortunately x

The chances of them having picked up those kinds of issues at your 20 week scan are very good. Not everything is/can be but downs and other syndromes are well checked for.

If your worried I would see about booking a private scan around 30 weeks just as an extra check.

I might just be letting my worries run away with me here, I did have a private scan at 23 weeks too although they weren't specifically looking for problems I'm sure they would have said something.

Oh well it's too late to do anything. I just hope everything is ok and the ultrasound was good. The only thing she mentioned at the ultrasound was that the baby's tummy was bigger than normal but not a concern. There was no follow up so I'll just have to hope it's all ok.

It's so worrying this pregnancy business!

strawberrypenguin I'm going for a scan at the hospital at around 27 weeks, because I've got too much fluid, do you think if I mentioned this at the time they might be able to have a little Iook then too?

I would try (i know easier said than done) but if all scans have been great you just need to go with that and try and enjoy

i live in northern ireland where your not even offered any of the tests as abortion/termination is illegal over here

I think it sounds like a misunderstanding with the sonographer. If you're older, then the 12 week screen would have come back at higher risk purely because of your age. Additionally, if locally amnio is the next step in case of high risk, but you wouldn't have it anyway, then what's the point of doing the first screening anyway? And yes, if you miss that then later on you can d things like the quadruple test on the NHS.

As you're now much further on and the baby looks fine, it's extremely unlikely that it would have Edwards or Patau's. Those babies are so seriously deformed (if they even make it this far in pregnancy) that a sonographer would have picked up on it at 20 weeks.

If you've got the money and want to put your mind at rest, then just go for a NIPT (Harmony, Panorama, Safe test etc). They are extremely accurate - a blood test that checks the baby's DNA. No risk like with amnio but 99%+ accuracy.