amniocentesis, CVS

[mjkacmom]

I live in the NYC area, and these tests have begun to be replaced with the nuchal translucency scan and the blood test that goes along with it. Much less invasive, and less expensive. Even when I had my twins 7 years ago, at the age of 35, I was given this instead of amnio, and my gf, who is 37 and pregnant now, said they didn't even offer the amnio, just the NTS.

 

[okeydokey]

I had one with my second. My blood screening came back high for Down's Syndrome and I was 35. If I was going to have a DS child, I wanted to know ahead of time to do some planning and learning. I did check out the center that was doing it and they were specialists in this area and had a very good record. Turned out well and I had no problems.

 

[designermv]

I am 38 and had my second baby just 13 weeks ago. I was offered both the CVS and the amnio by my maternal-fetal medicine doctor and declined both. I did, however, have the nuchal translucency screen, which combines a high resolution ultrasound and bloodwork. The results were normal so we saw no need to undergo further, more invasive testing.

Since you are only 32, my unsolicited, unprofessional opinion would be that if you are low-risk, there is absolutely no need to consider either procedure. Both sound very uncomfortable (to me) and the amnio is not without its own risks (not sure on the CVS risks.)

I wish you a very happy and healthy pregnancy!

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

I have the same opinion.

And that's a good idea, though the idea of a doctor actually giving, or even KEEPING, statistics like that seems just really unlikely. So my cynical, burned by OBs, MDs, and even midwives, self would say good luck with that!

I was lucky my Drs. were honest with their stats but I still opted out even with an the facts I had on hand of the likely outcome of my child.

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

I had one with my second. My blood screening came back high for Down's Syndrome and I was 35. If I was going to have a DS child, I wanted to know ahead of time to do some planning and learning. I did check out the center that was doing it and they were specialists in this area and had a very good record. Turned out well and I had no problems.

A very good Level II ultrasound can give you some pretty good answers with no risk to the fetus. I'm a planner as well but no risk is worth it to me to get a definitive answer.

 

[Rylee]

We have 5 children, 20 years apart, (almost to the day.) I had my first baby at 21 and my last at age 41.

I had the amnio with the last two.

Baby #4... perfect.

Baby #5...

The amnio revealed the baby was fine but while viewing the baby to perform the amnio, they saw something they had missed on a previous sono.

After a couple of weeks of more sonograms, we were told our baby would be born with a very rare birth defect. So rare, we had to travel out of state to deliver and have him born near expert doctors, as he would need surgery immediately after birth.

While they were still trying to diagnose him through sonograms, the doctors kept informing us there was still time to abort, even though the amnio results confirmed he was "normal." When I asked, "My baby can think, feel, love, laugh, why do you keep bring up abortion?" They said, "Many people don't want anything less than a perfect baby, we are required to inform you of your options."

Knowing in advance was a blessing. We were able to research his condition, interview doctors and find our son the very best medical care. We were able to prepare ourselves and our other children.

Our son spent his first month of life in a hospital, and DH and I lived in Boston for that month, to be with him. He is 8 now, and has since had 4 more surgeries, with more planned in his future. There is no cure but he's doing great! He's beautiful, smart, funny and loving and we are so thankful we knew in advance because if we hadn't known... he might not be here.

 

[RMulieri]

They were both offered to me at age 30 for my one and only pregnancy.I didn't do it because I was having the baby no matter what, and new with my high risk pregnancy, that there would not be another pregnancy.So I took the chance.My daughter is 6 and very healthy.I have no regrets.If I was past the age of 35 I may have considered it.

 

[3happydancers]

We have 5 children, 20 years apart, (almost to the day.) I had my first baby at 21 and my last at age 41.

I had the amnio with the last two.

Baby #4... perfect.

Baby #5...

The amnio revealed the baby was fine but while viewing the baby to perform the amnio, they saw something they had missed on a previous sono.

After a couple of weeks of more sonograms, we were told our baby would be born with a very rare birth defect. So rare, we had to travel out of state to deliver and have him born near expert doctors, as he would need surgery immediately after birth.

While they were still trying to diagnose him through sonograms, the doctors kept informing us there was still time to abort, even though the amnio results confirmed he was "normal." When I asked, "My baby can think, feel, love, laugh, why do you keep bring up abortion?" They said, "Many people don't want anything less than a perfect baby, we are required to inform you of your options."

Knowing in advance was a blessing. We were able to research his condition, interview doctors and find our son the very best medical care. We were able to prepare ourselves and our other children.

Our son spent his first month of life in a hospital, and DH and I lived in Boston for that month, to be with him. He is 8 now, and has since had 4 more surgeries, with more planned in his future. There is no cure but he's doing great! He's beautiful, smart, funny and loving and we are so thankful we knew in advance because if we hadn't known... he might not be here.

Just wanted to say how your story touched me and how happy I am for you that you have a beautiful child to love and who can love you. Prayers are with you all now and in the future.

 

[Rylee]

Just wanted to say how your story touched me and how happy I am for you that you have a beautiful child to love and who can love you. Prayers are with you all now and in the future.

Thank you.


When our youngest was about 5 months old, his sister, (13 at the time)
was playing with him in another room while I cooked dinner in the kitchen. She came running out in the kitchen to get something and as she flew by me, she said, "I'm so glad he was born." (Of course, she had no idea the doctors had mentioned aborting, but she obviously knew about his rough start in life.) I said, "Awe, honey, that's so sweet. I'm glad, too." She said, "Yea Mom, imagine if he had never been born... how much we would have missed."

Kids.. love 'em.

 

[kristennn]

I went in for a consultation in regards to CVS - they did the more detailed ultrasound and everything looked perfect so i decided to wait and maybe do amnio - then again I went in and they did the ultrasound first and everyhting looked perfect so I decided to wait and do bloodwork - everything looked really good so I didn't do either one.
our reasons for testing was advanced maternal age (37) abd our first daughter has serious health issues - although they;re not known to be genetic.

I actually *did* end up having aminio done at just under 38 weeks because I was having issues and wanted to deliver early - and they wanted to check to see if her lungs were ready. It was no big deal ... the main risk for amnio is that it will cause you to deliver early- which is a big deal at 14-17 weeks and results in misscarriage. If the amnio causes you to deliver early at 37-38 weeks or so - even if the lungs aren't quite ready it's still not such a big deal.
It didn't even hurt really.

 

[Zeebs]

In the UK we can have the nuchal scan and then if you get high odds of a problem they will offer a Amnio which you can accept or decline.

Kirsten

 

[cseca]

They can not make you. They can suggest it all they want, but they can't make you.

Yeah, I figure that...

 

[Ar1el]

I went in for a consultation in regards to CVS - they did the more detailed ultrasound and everything looked perfect so i decided to wait and maybe do amnio - then again I went in and they did the ultrasound first and everyhting looked perfect so I decided to wait and do bloodwork - everything looked really good so I didn't do either one.
our reasons for testing was advanced maternal age (37) abd our first daughter has serious health issues - although they;re not known to be genetic.

I actually *did* end up having aminio done at just under 38 weeks because I was having issues and wanted to deliver early - and they wanted to check to see if her lungs were ready. It was no big deal ... the main risk for amnio is that it will cause you to deliver early- which is a big deal at 14-17 weeks and results in misscarriage. If the amnio causes you to deliver early at 37-38 weeks or so - even if the lungs aren't quite ready it's still not such a big deal.
It didn't even hurt really.

I am surprised to hear it didn't really hurt. I always imagined that it was very painful. Glad u were not to uncomfortable with the procedure!

 

[Ar1el]

Thank you.


When our youngest was about 5 months old, his sister, (13 at the time)
was playing with him in another room while I cooked dinner in the kitchen. She came running out in the kitchen to get something and as she flew by me, she said, "I'm so glad he was born." (Of course, she had no idea the doctors had mentioned aborting, but she obviously knew about his rough start in life.) I said, "Awe, honey, that's so sweet. I'm glad, too." She said, "Yea Mom, imagine if he had never been born... how much we would have missed."

Kids.. love 'em.

How sweet of your daughter, she must be a very good big sister!

 

[BrandyC1974]

I had an amnio with both my daughters. DD12 has spina bifida and we wanted to make sure that there was nothing else to worry about. Also, with DD9, my pregnency was high risk due to previous pregnency and I opted to have it done to see if she had any birth defects (thankfully she has none).

 

[DawnM]

Please do a google search of the risks of these procedures. I have had a few friends who almost lost their babies due to an amnio that IMHO was just not necessary.

I refused to get one.

Dawn

 

[honeydiane1953]

Bacl in THE DAY amnio was just a word. No I didn't and had two healthy children. I would have loooved one but Moses was walking the earth.

 

[McDuck]

I am 36 and just had my first child in October. I did not have an amnio nor a CVS (which is where they snip away some of the developing tissue to test it--chorionic villi sampling is what it stands for) because they are invasive and carry miscarriage risks. I wasn't going to take the chance on anything that could jeopardize the pregnancy.

 

[Music City Mama]

I was 36 when I was pregnant with my second ds. I was going to do the nuchal screen and bloodwork, but to me, that's all it was . . . a screening. It couldn't tell me anything definitive, which, if I was going to have a baby with a birth defect, I would want to be armed with all of the knowledge I could possibly have. I had a CVS at 11 weeks. The risk of m/c was less than 1% -- and even then, those numbers are skewed given it's an average of all procedures performed (everywhere). Obviously, a less experienced maternal fetal doctor is going to have a higher rate of m/c (say 2%) than a very experienced maternal fetal doctor whose m/c rate is a fraction of a percent. Fortunately, I live in a medical/healthcare city with very experienced docs. In addition, some women will naturally miscarry regardless, so they can't always say for sure what caused it.

I don't think you can automatically assume that someone would terminate because they are willing to take that less than 1% risk that they might miscarry vs. having an amino or CVS performed. I do think it's every woman's right to choose, but I also happen to think it's pretty smart to know what you may be up against should you carry to term (see previous poster's story). I don't know why "35" is that magic number where they start to offer all of this, but I know I felt reassured during my pregnancy knowing nothing was wrong given my "advanced maternal age".

And FWIW, they did mine trans******lly -- was less uncomfortable than a pap smear.

 

[Iggipolka]

I was 39 when I had Lillian and choose to have CVS. I wanted to know if we needed to be prepared for any problems due to my age. CVS hurt, but I'm glad that I had it done. If/when I get pregnant again, I will have another CVS.