prenatal harmony test/non invasive testing

[studentmidwifemais]

Hello all,

I am currently a final year Alevel student with 2 confirmed university offers to study midwifery starting in September and I couldn't be more excited.
As part of my application I am doing an extended project qualification that is basically about whether non invasive testing such as the harmony test will lead to the amniocentesis being cut from NHS funding in the future due to its risky nature and popularity of NIPT.
If anyone has had a harmony test/amniocentesis or similar would you possibly be able to share your experiences with the tests with me and your opinions on which test is more beneficial for expecting mothers. it would be sooo super helpful!!!!!
thank you so much!!:)

NIPT can't replace amniocentesis or CVS as it's not a diagnostic test only a screening test with better accuracy than current tests on offer.

I don't think it's either/or as harmony is highly accurate but not 100%. perhaps a better question would be should it replace the 12 week NHS blood/scan test - do you get to choose the wording of the question?

My experience of the harmony is that it included a very thorough scan, much more like 20 weeks than 12, the results were back quickly, and we had the option of finding out the sex. It was all v positive and easy. I went to the foetal medical centre.

HI, I’m currently 22 weeks pregnant and had a harmony test at 12 weeks. I’m in my forties so my midwife encouraged me to have this as I would automatically come up as high risk for downs due to my age regardless of the result of my first scan. This was excellent advice and whilst the test is very expensive it was worth every penny to give me peace of mind during this pregnancy. There is no way I would have had an aminocentesis had the harmony test not been made available to me. I couldn’t take the risk of it killing my unborn child. I do hope that the harmony test will become part of the nhs’ care for expectant mothers however, as it’s so expensive at the moment as it’s a relatively new thing I doubt this will come into effect for quite a while.
Good luck with your alevels and congrats on the uni offer!

I'm having it in a couple of weeks so if you bump this post then I will respond. My midwife said the NHS are looking into funding for it.

The harmony test can't replace amniocentesis, however could be used for people who are high risk with the NHS screening, before amniocentesis, to reduce the number of procedures done.

I had the harmony test at 10 weeks, found out the sex as well. Was expensive but I wanted to know as early as possible if there were any problems.

Thank you all you've been amazing help!! I am aware it cant actually replace the amniocentesis don't worry its all part of my argument:) :)

I had the Harmony test and it gave me such peace of mind. Didn't take too long and was very impressed. The cost was crazy at £450 though but obviously I had to pay for it privately! It seems it's much more accurate than existing screening tests (not diagnostic tests of course) but as it's non invasive I think lots of women have had very good experiences with it 😊

I’ve had both done in a previous pregnancy. Our 12 week scan showed baby had a Cystic Hygroma and we were given a 1% chance of the baby making it to birth. We resisted invasive testing initially and had the harmony test done privately which showed 99% match for Turners Syndrome. A scan at 16 weeks showed our little girl had deteriorated further and we felt pushed by the nhs consultant to have an amnioscentisis even though we were quite confident it was in fact Turners Syndrome. Had the amino done and honestly what a horrible, terrifying experience which in the end proved completely unnecessary as we knew what was wrong with the baby but nhs consultant wouldn’t trust the harmony test results. Baby did have Turners and passed away shortly after the amino 😢 will never know if it was the amino itself or her deteriorating condition. More than likely as she was so poorly anyway. I would fully support non invasive testing on the nhs as proved pretty accurate in my case!

I am in the USA on (employer sponsored) private insurance as opposed to Medicaid (can’t speak for Medicaid). I was given the harmony test at 12 weeks with no charge and only later realized that this is generous compared to other countries. My doc said they now perform it for all over 35s. This took the place of the nucal fold scan and genetic tests that i’d had with my son so it streamlined things. They didn’t make a big deal of the harmony test at all - I just called up and they read out the results (which were clear of the trisomies). Had we wanted to know the sex (which we didn’t ) they would have told us then as well. A good experience all around.