Questions & Answers

DONOT do the test I have 4 children finally said okay on the fourth to do the screening they said she may have Trisomy 18 and would not make it well I was scared considered highrisk My OB said not to do them that they are almost always false positive and scare for no reason and thats exactly what happened to me I ended up with a CSection only because she was breech last second and guess what perfectly normal not a thing wrong with her and I was so angry and swore I would never ever do those damn tests again unless a history of illness in family that could be passed on otherwise screw the tests not going through that ever again!

The testing if OFTEN covered by insurance just an FYI even the ultrasound. My carrier is picky and they paid for it.
This is a personal decision. The testing just gives you odds...1 in 200, 1 in 1,000 etc. Some of the blood work can tell you for sure if there are neural tube defects after the second set of tests. The series of tests is a first trimester blood draw to measure certain levels of things in the blood that can be an indicator of defects (AFP is one of them). Second tri they do another blood draw and targeted ultrasound where they measure the baby's neck and check the anatomy for possible birth defects. They use those results of BOTH tests to give you that odds results. For my because of age and weight my risk was originally 1 in 275 and by the time i had both sets of tests done my risk went up to 1 in 20,000. It gave me peace of mind but I knew going in that if the results were higher risk that I would worry all the way throuh.

I did all the tests..I've always done them but this time the lab screwed up on my blood work & they wanted me to do it again & being that I have a fear of needles I said no & I had an ultrasound comming the following wk & they could tell from that if there was something wrong..another thing is if theres an issue with your baby nothing you can do about it...it is what it is. I'm on medicaid so it doesnt cost me anything, but I've been on insurance & those tests are costly...ultrasounds alone are about $400..blood work can cost up to $200 depending what you have done.

we decided also to pass on the first trimester screens. the reasoning for us is b/c whatever the result wouldn't change the course of the pregnancy. so, we saw no need to spend the money for a test that the result isn't something that could be prevented.

My DH and I decided not to do the screening and we ended up doing all of it cause they thought something looked funky on our u/s. We went through the u/s and two diff blood tests all have come back great and we just had a 20wk u/s and our lil p-nut is doing fantastic! My advice to you is first to call your insurance to see if it is even covered cause they are not cheap tests. If they are then you have more to decide but honestly I would say if your both healthy and the OB hasn't raised any questions I would pass on them. There is a possibility of false positives etc which is true and can be scary. The u/s was easy enough and dr came in afterwards to give us a prelim report that all looked good. What they do is measure the fold at the babies neck and the thickness determines if there is a possibility of baby having Down's syndrome and is more accurate along with blood test we were told. If Dr isn't making a big deal about these tests again I would pass! Less stress the better!