I've just had my harmony test cancelled

[MummyMilla]

My local Spire hospital has just called to say that they are under instruction to cancel all appointments for pregnant women, which includes harmony tests. They are under instructions to keep all pregnant women away from their hospitals.

It's really shaken me. Are regular NHS scans still happening? I have got two slightly older children, one of whom is autistic, so I hadn't wanted to tell them about the pregnancy until I was confident that it would be viable. I am now very scared that they will have to know about it all (I mean, I'm already showing at 8 weeks!) and any potential abortion if baby isn't OK.

Strange... I keep getting messages from my trust telling me how important it is that I continue to attend my antenatal appointments unless I'm unwell. I was just at my consultant led antenatal clinic 2 days ago and they basically said pregnant women just need to be careful but don't go too nutty and completely self isolate just yet. My next clinic will apparently be a telephone appointment but that's just because it's blood test results.
You will still get your combined test through the nhs (I know this isn't as accurate as the NIPT test but still.. better than nothing). It is a very uncertain and scary time to be pregnant isn't it xx

Spire is a private hospital, isn't it? That'll be why. They operate under their own jurisdiction.

@Catlady32 thanks for your reply. I'm just waiting for my midwife to call back so I can understand timing for the other tests. My biggest worry is the impact on my kids, especially my 6yo autistic son. He is going to be overjoyed when he finds out I'm pg (it's taken a long time to get pg) and I just cannot imagine how we then explain to him that we need to terminate. He is so literal I know he'd be devastated. I'm 39 and know that I'm higher risk.

@bezalelle yes, it's private. She said the instruction had come from public health England I think - I guess they are trying to clear the decks in preparation (hopefully) to free up beds to support NHS. Her words were "we have been advised to keep ALL pregnant women away from our hospitals". Scary.

How odd. Though they must indeed be following some official guidelines if they are cancelling private paid for tests (and therefore losing money).

Would you definitely terminate then if the baby had any of the trisomys?

Maybe just wait to tell your children until you’ve at least had the nhs screening results, because these tests will definitely still be going ahead.

@Catlover10 yes - it didn't sound like a decision they had made tbh.

Sadly yes I think I would. My husband's youngest sister had Down's and we obviously adore her, but there's a high chance that we will care for her in the future if/when something happens to DH's parents. And my youngest is autistic. So whilst we are accepting that we may have another neurodiverse child, adding complex disabilities in to the mix is quite different.

It all makes me feel so sad which is why I had hoped to be able to make any difficult decisions early on.