Low PAPP-a results from blood test

[AM1994]

i all

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with getting a low Papp-a result?

It’s to do with the placenta and can lead to low birth weight baby / early delivery and a few other things from what I’m reading. Just had a letter today to say I had low Papp-a and will need two extra scans to see baby’s growth along the way. It would just be good to see if anyone has experienced it. Currently 20weeks + 5 days and everything else is happy and healthy. My next midwife appointment is 4 weeks away.

Thank you

Hi,

There might be different policies at different hospitals but I had low PAPP-A and the major differences for me were;

1. I was consultant-led and had extra growth scans (all of which were fine, and it was actually quite nice to have the extra scans and see the baby more often)

2. at the end of the pregnancy they looked at what my PAPP-A level had been at my 12 week scan and advised that I should be induced on my due date. As I understand it's like a sliding scale, so if your PAPP-A level was slightly higher than mine (0.24) then they might recommend induction just after your due date, if it was lower than mine then they might recommend induction just before your due date

As with everything, it's your choice whether you go ahead with their advice and take the induction. I did follow their advice in the end but really didn't enjoy the induction process at all and in hindsight maybe I would have been more forceful about requesting an alternative (eg coming in for daily monitoring from my due date onwards, but remaining as an outpatient)... I did suggest this to my consultant prior to my due date but my request was declined. I still think that I might have been more rested and positive, and therefore might have had a better birth experience, if they had accepted this suggestion; instead of me being cooped up on a loud and hot shared hospital ward for 5 days leading up to the birth, because there were no slots on delivery suite.

But anyway, that's life and my baby is here now and was completely healthy at birth, despite the low PAPP-A, so I would really say don't worry about it but do read up more on the induction process if you're not already aware of it

Best of luck with everything!

Thank you very much for your response, very helpful & nice to hear from someone that has been through it. Thanks again