ARC are fantastic I can recommend them to anyone (-:

[mosschops30]

belgianbun recommended them to me on my nuchal thread.

It was so lovely to hear a friendly voice, who was listening to my waffling and helping me to make sense of everything, whilst not being manly about it and finding a solution!

I am now armed with a list of possible things to do and although nothing has changed, she helped to make me feel more positive about the options and where I can go next

If anyone reading this is facing difficult choices about their ante natal testing please give them a call, Im so glad I did

I second that Mossschops.

I found them very useful over the phone and had all the relevant publications off them which were invaluable in giving me information in a factual non emotional way. I passed them onto my MW afterwards who was glad to have them for other patients.

the ARC web page

Hope everything is okay with you and bump Mosschops. Take care.

I found ARC a huge help too.
They were really supportive when I was going through the testing and when I had my results. There were many tearful phone conversations with lovely, understanding ladies who had time to listen to my worries and without judgement.
Although I chose to have my baby I was still supported throughout my pregnancy as I felt I needed to grieve for the baby I had 'imagined' if this makes sense. All is well now and I wouldn't change a thing but I'm so glad there was somone there to listen during such a difficult time.

Hi Riven
They offfer support on parents choices, whether it is to continue with the pregnancy or terminate. If it is to continue but with death as a likely prognosis for example they offer advice on how to cope with a funeral and what may happen. If it is to terminate they explain how that may happen at various stages of pregnancy. They suggest questions to ask of your medicla support team.

They helped me decide on tests that were appropriate to my baby to ensure he was delivered in the right setting with the necessary specialist support available to him.

I had a difficult situation as I was having twins and one had a complication and one didn't. I had conflicting advice initially as to whether "selective reduction" would improve T2s chances or reduce them. T1 had an exomphalus and thus had a 1/3 chance of Pataus, Edwards or Downs. I risked an amnio and discovered he had no chromosonal abnormality at all.

My choice was to keep my baby and that was the right decision for us as a family. Unfortunatley as you know, all the tests in the world can not guarantee any outcome.

After T1 was born we discovered he had no trachea so his condition was incompatible with life. He died in my arms after nine hours. I am pleased however that he got to meet us and we him however short our time together was. The ARC info actually became useful at this stage as I had a funeral to deal with and their information booklet had bereavement in it as well.

To Riven - to be brutally honest, when I rang ARC (after 3.5mm nuchal) I was scared that they would be all 'have the amnio and terminate' and not help me in any other way. But actually they were really sweet and listened to me moan and gave me details for Downs syndrome association and a heart charity I think it was (when I told them no way to amnio). Sadly DD didn't make it past 2nd trimester but I think they would be helpful to other parents who had positive screening result but refused further testing.

I've found ARC's support invaluable. Unfortunately we didn't hear of them until after having a termination but got a huge amount of support, over the phone, on the ARC forum and through the literature.
My baby had full Trisomy 13, picked up intially by 6mm nuchal fold then CVS scan. We were told before the CVS that the problem was almost certainly chromosomal and were praying so hard for it to be Downs (I know that sounds weird, but it was the only one mentioned that would be compatible with life). We were therefore devastated to hear that our baby was not going to survive. ARC was a huge support to me in the months afterwards. Being able to connect with other mum's in the same situation on a moderated forum was so helpful, unlike an open forum there is no fear of a personal attack or people looking for support instead becoming unwillingly caught up in a debate.
I am now pregnant again and don't really want any screening but have agreed to go for the dating scan and take it from them.
Mosschops, I hope you are feeling more positive, please keep us posted with how you get on.