How common is it to receive a Downs Syndrome ratio of 1 in 2 at your 12 week scan

[LillieJay]

I am an older mother and have recently received positive results from a Down Syndrome screening test, saying we have a 1 in 2 chance.

I'd like to know how rare (or not) is this result in older mums?

Talk to your doctor.

What do you class as older mums? I was over 35 with both of mine and the result was 1 in several thousand with each of them. The youngest one had the lower chance.

Mine was 1 in 2 at my 12 week scan. I was 37. They sent me for an Amnio straight away the same day. It was because of something that showed up in the bloods rather than anything physical. It was an agonising wait for the results (about a week) but all showed up fine. He's now 12 so I'm sure things have moved on a bit now in terms of technology and wait times for results etc.

Your risk is calculated on a lot of factors, age is just one of them as the risk of Down’s syndrome increases the older a woman is but that’s not to say women in their late teens/ early 20’s don’t have Down’s syndrome babies too. They look at the NT measurement behind the babies neck, your blood results, whether you smoke, if it was an ivf pregnancy, age and a few other things and all this as a whole gives you the risk score, age is just one factor so it’s unlikely that the age in itself is what gave you the 1 in 2 result. More likely one of the the bloods or NT measurement wasn’t within the normal limit which can be absolutely nothing to do with Down’s syndrome or it could be. Have they offered you further testing? This can tell you accurately if your baby has Down’s syndrome or not. Wishing you the best and sorry you are having to go through the added stress during pregnancy x

I don't know how common it is but I would say that's very high, even for an older mother. I was 41 with my second and from memory my chance was around 200.

Would you consider having a CVS test to be sure. I paid to have this privately.

One in 200.

It is possible to get a low risk result as an older Mum. I was 41 with an IVF pregnancy and got 1 in several thousand on the NHS. I had already paid for NIPT privately to put my mind at risk. I would recommend it if you are not offered it on the NHS as it’s less invasive than CVS and amniocentesis. Fingers crossed it turns out to be nothing.