Nuchal Translucency Test....

Hi Jackie--

I've had all the non-invasive tests so far in this pregnancy. The NT was checked during an ultrasound several weeks (six?) back and I had an AFP (blood test) two weeks ago. When I went for my big ultrasound/anatomy scan this morning, I noticed another NT measurement was taken.

The Nurse Practitioner went over all the results with me and all is well.   :  )

Apparently, the risk of m/c with an amnio is 1/1600 (according to my doctor). I'm not sure of the risk with the CVS test though.

It is a very personal decision/choice for each couple. I wish you and your husband all the best!

--Paula

Jackie - I am just a couple weeks ahead of you and choose not to do the NT test. I have enough other things to worry about during this pregnancy I don't want to chance a false positive. LIke you said - God doesn't give us more then we can handle. I wouldn't opt for the amnio but that's just  me. I'll do all the ultrasounds they want to though!!! lol

This is a tough decision, I actually talked about it with hubby and my OB - the OB asked me some questions and said that I was in one of the lowest brackets for all of these disorders and that if she was me she would probably not do it (She is a mother of 3 with one that is less then a year old) so I value her opinion.

Hope that this helps!

Liz

I opted to have the testing done... Since I was older than most 1st time mom's, I decided to just prepare myself just in case... However, all of the probabilities came back very low which put my mind at ease... It was a pretty simple blood test......

As many of the others have said, we would have kept this baby no matter what the results were. Like you, i would never put risk on the baby with an amnio to just find out.

We did an u/s and the triple screen test (blood test). All they did was draw some blood (which they do about ever trimester anyway b/c of my hypothyroidism). Everything came back negative although she did say that 5% of all people tested get a positive and only 5% of that 5% (so a really small amount) are actually TRUE positives.

It made me feel good knowing the baby is fine, but it can provide a lot of anxiety if it comes back positive when it may not be a TRUE positive.

Does this make any sense? Good luck with whatever you decide.

We didn't do any testing, just the normal 18 week ultrasound.  I knew that we wouldn't chose to terminate the pregnancy, and I have enough to stress about with my blood clotting issues, I didn't want to stress about the what if's. 
I have 2 close friends that had false positives and their babies are perfect but they did stress alot during the pregnancies. 
It is a personal choice and my dr didn't bat an eye when I told them no, so I didn't feel any pressure one way or another. 
Good luck with your decision!
Chrissy

I didn't do the test...my insurance would not cover it since I was not at high risk.  Make sure to verify if your insurance covers it if you decide to do it.  It was going to cost me around 400.00-500.00 out of pocket if I did it since it wasn't medically necessary.

Even though I'm an older mom, we opted not to do any blood tests.  They were simply screening tests, not diagnoses, and we knew we would not do an amnio if the screening indicated the possibility of a problem (my risk of miscarriage was too great) and an amnio is the only way for a definitive diagnosis.  So we figured why stress out about a false positive, etc.  That was just us though.  He was and is just perfect.

Jen