Has anyone opted for amnio even if nuchal/blood results are good?

[corgikelly]

I just got back from having my 12-week nuchal scan and bloodwork, and am looking at a week's wait for the results. (

But the OB said something interesting -- the amnio is at the discretion of the parents. So even if the test results are good (i.e., less than a 1 in 250 risk for Down syndrome), if we ask for the amnio, they'll do one.

I am TERRIFIED of having a special needs baby, for many reasons...and my instinct is to obtain as much information as possible on the future health of the baby. I know that amnio lets you evaluate for a broader risk of chromosomal disorders than just Down syndrome, but I'm not exactly sure which disorders are involved.

Trying desperately to weigh my potential for second-guessing myself and negative outcomes: have an amnio, the results come back normal but I have an amnio-induced miscarriage; or don't have the amnio and have a child born with a disorder that could have been picked up by amnio.

So just wondering if anyone out there has been in, or put themselves in, this position and what decision they made...

Interestingly (or shckingly), in hunting around the internet, I've found "amnio risk of miscarriage stats ranging from 1 in 100 to 1 in 600, which doesn't help the decision-making process much.

I am nearly 37 and am 18 weeks pregnant with my first baby. I had an Addmark test (combining a nuchal scan and triple test)done at 13 weeks of pregnancy from a reputed private screening centre in the UK and the risk factor for Down's Syndrome came out as 1 in 1100. I also had only a triple test done at an NHS hospital at 16 weeks of pregnancy. I have just obtained the report for this second test and the risk factor is 1 in 10 ! I know the nuchal scan is more reliable, but am totally confused and can't decide what to do now. Could anyone please advise? Thanks in advance. --- Chloe

Being a mother is all about living with uncertainty and whatever comes your way, you know. All of it, all the time. If you find uncertainty so terrifying, perhaps some counselling about that would be a good idea.

Sorry, Zazette, but I don´t think that´s very helpful advice to a poor, anxious, confused mother-to-be.

No doubt you are right, but I think it´s not really what poor Ch71 needs to hear right now.

Sorry if it comes across as unhelpful - it is a bit abruptly phrased, I admit.

But I am making a serious point: antenatal tests can't give you long-term certainty about your child's health, and perhaps for the OP thinking about the intensity of her desire for that certainty in terms of the bigger picture would be helpful.

(Also my comment was directed to Corgikelly's earlier post mentioning her desperate need for certainty, not to CH71's post, which I didn't see, and which I'm afraid I can't help with because I have no idea what the implications of those figures might be).

Trust me, I'm not so unreasonable as to think/believe that motherhood is a controllable state. I do believe that learning to accept the inevitable loss of control that comes with having a thinking, breathing, willful third party on the scene is a gradually acquired skill -- or at least it will be for me.

My point is that at this point, there are some steps I can take to arm myself with a maximum of information, which would be helpful for me. Do I think amnio gives me all the answers? No. Am I even sure I'd take the opportunity to have one? No. But it's still something I'm puzzling through.

I had a risk of 1:50 after my combined bllods and nuchal. They phoned me withine 2 days with this result, a week to get 'good' news by post.

I decided not to have an amnio or CVS. Mainly because I did not want to risk a mc. I would not have terminated because of Downs. However at 18 weeks I did mc anyway. Having experienced that I now know that I made the right decision for me. It also confirmed that I could never have had a termination either. At 18 weeks they are a perfect baby just very small.

I totally agree with Corgi, none of this about having unreal expectations for this new life we are bringing into the world (or hoping to). Nor is it about having a ´perfect baby´ - surely that´s a very subjective concept anyway - so what if the baby is colour blind, tone deaf, or isn´t artistic or sporty? doesn´t have 100% correct vision, or whatever?

We´re not talking about wanting to discard any child that is not ´perfect´ here. We are talking about medical diagnostic tests which will give us a clear yes or no as to whether the child has Down´s. All other factors - developmental, physical, emotional - are down to things we can´t test for, or, to a certain extent, influence ourselves.

But if we use modern medicine to help us to decide whether or not we could cope with a child that has disabilities, and whether we want and choose to continue with that pregnancy, I really don´t see a problem with that.

I know this is a very sticky moral issue, and I´m not even sure what I would do if it turned out my baby had Down´s. And I live in southern Spain, where termination at any stage in a pregnancy is still massively taboo.