Nuchal fold scan - advice needed please...

[Jan2]

I am 35 years old and am 10 weeks pregnant. I saw my midwife yesterday and she mentioned the above scan and blood test but said that you have to pay privately if you want them.

They weren't mentioned to me with my 2 previous pregnancies. I had a missed miscarriage with the first but have a 2.5 DD now from the second.

I'm wondering whether she's mentioned them because of my age and now am fretting about it!

The scan and blood test are done between 11-14 weeks and the private hospital near me only has a slot next week if I want to go ahead.

The reason I would have it done would be to find out earlier if there was a high risk of downs syndrome etc. Whereas the NHS blood test isn't carried out until 16 weeks and by the time you've waited for the results is quite far on.

The question I have is if I did have the nuchal scan at 11 weeks and it came back with a high risk result and I decided to have an amniocetosis (spelt wrong) would I be able to have this straight away or do you have to wait until further along anyway? In which case I may as well just have the normal blood test at 16 weeks.

If anyone has any experience of this I would be very grateful for any advice.

I don't think you can have the amnio as early as 12 weeks,although the CVS test you can have a bit earlier.Could you ring the private place and ask when they would do an amnio and/or CVS?
Sorry no personal experience on this,where I am in London everyone gets the nuchal scan.

Whats the CVS? is that like the amnio?

Hello,

A CVS is a sample taken from the placental cells that adjoin to the wall of the womb. It can be done from 11 weeks. An Amnio is a sample of material of the amniotic fluid it is usually done later as otherwise there is not enough fluid to take for the test IYSWIM.

Normally a private scan will take bloods and scan results and give you a risk on the same day. In a private clinic they take many more markers than the NHS to give you a result.

Try to remember that the scans/bloods will only give you a risk or chance of carrying a baby with Down Syndrome. Whereas the CVS/Amnio will give you a definite answer.

Also, it is worth noting that the invasive tests carry a risk of miscarriage (these are normally 1-2% depending on the tests) but you can find out what your clinics rates are before you test to put your mind at ease or arrange to go elsewhere if you feel that you do not like the numbers (although this is no guarantee.)

www.arc-uk.org/ - They offer information to anyone considering these tests of can help if you have had a result that you need to talk through.

I had my nuchal scan the week before last - I'm 33 and will be 14 weeks tomorrow with DC2.

I decided to have the scan, not because we wouldn't go ahead with a Down's baby, but so we could prepare ourselves if that were the case.

The other posters are right - it gives you a likelihood (based on age, blood markers, whether you smoke, and the size of a pad of fat at the back of baby's neck), and it's then up to you to decide whether to investigate further and have a diagnostic (invasive) test.

In my case, the usual likelihood for Down's for a 33 year old was put at something like 1:500. The test altered this to 1:2500. The consultant said that given the possible risk of miscarriage due to invasive tests as being 1:100, we'd be 2.5 times more likely to have a miscarriage than a baby with Down's so he said it was definitely not worth the risk investigating further. (You also get lots of much better quality scan pics if you go private! We'd already had a dating scan so knew there was something there, and decided to take DS along for this one which he thought was fascinating)

The other things they look for are Patau's Syndrome and Edwards Syndrome, both of which are far rarer, but more serious - often babies with either of these don't live past birth. Again, something to prepare yourself for by having the test.

I suppose you just have to think through the consequences of having the tests and what your course of action would be depending on the results. Good luck with what you decide to do.

Thank you all very much for the help. I think I will probably just have the usual blood test at 16 weeks and hope for a positive indicator from that.