When to tell? Down-syndrome Test

[SaraDowns123]

I’m almost 13 weeks pregnant and have had my 12 week scan.

They said the baby looked really healthy and there were no cause for concerns.

I’ve opted for the Down-syndrome screening test. The sonographer said the marker on the scan was absolutely fine but I’m just waiting for my blood test results.

I wondered if people held off telling anyone until they’ve received the blood test results? Or just jumped straight in after a healthy scan?

This is an entirely personal decision.

We told immediate family around 10 weeks but it was closer to 17 weeks before we told anyone else. That's just what worked best for us.

@SaraDowns123 congrats!!

Sure everything will be fine but you need to ask yourself if you’d be happy to tell everyone your news before the results but then potentially have to tell them something else afterwards?

I waited until I knew the results from the downs and other tests were all ok 👍🏻

I'd wait. Having had a baby who had Downs and severe physical abnormalities, leading us to a termination, I was glad that i had waited. Even though we still told a lot of people, it was easier not to have to break bad news after good, or to feel rushed into telling people.

I should add that it was obvious that things weren't ok at the 12w scan.

We held off telling anyone until we'd had the results of the quad test. We would have kept DD if she had Downs, but we just wanted to have time and space to understand the diagnosis, if we were to get one.

I told my very close family and friends after my early scan at 7 weeks.

I waited till I got my combined blood test (the one that screens for downs etc) back a week after my 12wk scan and then told everyone else xx

Congratulations!

There is absolutely no right or wrong answer to this.

We opted for the DS test but still told people at 12 weeks because I knew that if our baby did have DS we would still have progressed with the pregnancy. But if you’re not sure what you would do, or if you’re sure but just want all the information to hand before announcing, there is no harm in waiting. It’s entirely dependent on what you feel comfortable and happy with.

It's totally a personal preference. Our scan went well so we told parents & our 2 best friends but waited until after the Downs Syndrome results to tell everyone else x

I think you do whichever feels best for you. I opted to tell my family immediately after the scan, as I didn't want to keep it a secret any more.

Besides, in my case, the sonographer couldn't get NT measurements during the scan (though did say it all looked OK). So I would have had to have waited until ~17 weeks until announcing, if I had waited for the quad results to come back.

If the scan hadn't looked ok? I still probably would tell. I would need support at the prospect of a TFMR (I would definitely not continue should T13/18/21 be confirmed).

I hope you don’t mind me added to this post- I’m waiting to tell people once we have our results back. Can any of you remember how long this took? Thanks

@1stimeMum2b It took about 3 days to receive our results but it varies between hospitals.