How many of you are getting the genetic testing and pre-screening?

My husband and I talked a lot about all the screening for genetic problems and downs syndrome and so on but we have decided not have all the testing done. I won't terminate the pregnancy either way and I would rather have 9 happy months of pregnancy than 9 months of worrying if the tests are positive. Our midwife is alright with the decision. Have you decided to take the tests or have you declined them and what has been your reasoning? I'm just curious what everyone else has done.

With our first, we got the triple screen done, etc. They all came out perfectly. Everything looked wonderful. We got up to the 20 week ultrasound. Our son's major heart defect (the worst one there is - HLHS) was discovered then. We were given three choices: continue the pregnancy, have him, and then let him die in our arms. With his heart, he would die within a day. Or we could put him on a ventilator and they could do surgery (the first of many) when he was about a week old. They couldn't tell us how long he would/could survive. The third choice would be to induce labor in me right then, and let the baby be born too early to survive.

They recommended an amnio, which we hadn't been planning to get, but we ultimately did. Everything came back perfect, once again!

We decided to give him a chance at survival. We didn't know what his quality of life would be. He lived for nearly four months. He never left the hospital. He went through numerous surgeries and procedures. He got addicted to his pain meds. To watch a 3 month old going through withdrawal is horrible!

We would never give up the time we had with him. That said, we will never put another baby of ours through all of that again.

After he was born, it seemed that he had some kind of syndrome, besides his heart, they found after he was born that he had a hypoplastic lung, vein atresia, uniquely shaped eyelids, undescended testes, and a joint missing in one of his little fingers, in additon to a 2-vessel cord in utero. We got micro-chromosomal tests done on him, and on his father and I. Everything was great. Perfect! The doctors were assuming it was chromosomal, but there was absolutely nothing to indicate any problems. If not for the ultrasounds, our baby would have been born and nobody would have known anything was admiss until he would have trouble breathing.

We will get all the testing possible with our new pregnancy (except maybe not amnio if the baby's organs, especially the heart, look fine via ultrasound). If our new baby has HLHS, we will induce early, and not let our baby suffer.

I chose to do the AFP genetic blood screen. All of my results came back incredibly low risk so I didn't go any further. My fiance and I had come to an agreement though that we'd do the blood test, and the genetic ultrasound if the blood test results came back high risk, but that we wouldn't do an amnio after that point, it wasn't worth the risk of miscarriage. We wouldn't have terminated the pregnancy no matter what, but we just wanted to be prepared, sometimes the results can help your doctor know if they'll need extra hands at the delivery, if you'd need a c-section, or if they need to have specialists readily available.

Well I did the nuchal test. The only reason I agreed to do it is b/c it is non-invasive. Amniocentesis and testing like that poses risks of miscarriage. While you know that you wouldn't terminate the pregnancy its always nice to KNOW whether or not you might need to make certain preparations in advance for a child that might need special needs. That is the reason I took the test. Anyways good luck and congrats.

Actually, they are a good idea even if you wouldn't terminate. They can pick up a heart problem or some other issue that might affect the way they would deliver the baby (if the baby had a heart problem, for instance, they might choose to do a c-section and save the baby the hard work of vaginal birth). They could pick up an issue that could be fixed via surgery in-utero, or immediately afterwards.

I took the quad screening, where they just take my blood, because my boyfriends brother has down syndrome. I haven't had any calls from the doctors office with concerns. If I go in next week and it is high risk I will go ahead with more tests. I hate worrying.

I did have the testing. We just wanted to be prepared if any of the tests were positive / abnormal. We wanted to be able to do the research and prepare that way we wouldn't be shocked and feeling helpless when the baby was born.

I have had it done with all three of my pregnancies. Better to be prepared for whatever the outcome is. I would not have terminated if there were any abnormalities, but it would have made preparing easier.

i am doing it end of this month, i will be 16 weeks and yes if there is something wrong i will definitely terminate the pregnancy! no point of having unhealthy kid in this cruel world. good luck to everybody though.

I took them all. Just because i'd want to know ahead of time if something were to go wrong with my baby. I won't love him any less if there is, but I feel better knowing.

That was my reasoning, too. Even if there are probs this time around, I wouldn't terminate, so why worry the whole time?

I think you are making the right decision. I let my mother (this is their first grandchild) talk me into taking it, and it came back postive for neural tube defects. I was sent to a specialist who scared the crap out of me with all the what ifs and completely didn't listen to me at all. The ultrasound showed no defects whatsoever and everyone was pushing for an amnio. This whole time, I just felt in my bones, that everything was OK with my daughter (I think a lot of us tend not to listen to our motherly instincts...I'm so glad I listened to mine) and refused the amnio. Then, all the physicians seemed to look down on me as though I was a bad mother for not having the amnio....even if it had come back positive, I wouldn't have aborted. I switched physicians, but that stupid test kept following me...I was automatically a high risk pregnancy then.

To make a long story short...my daughter was born two days before her due date, perfectly fine and formed. She is a happy, healthy (and currently in that putting everything in her mouth stage!) four month old and when I have other children I will 100% decline that test!! After I had it, I found out that it has an 85% false positive rate. What!? Keep your sanity...avoid the test.