abnormalities testing around 17 weeks?

I went to my 2nd prenatal appointment today. All is well: the heart rate is 154 and we could hear the baby moving as well! All of my labwork came back normal too! My dr. mentioned a blood test that is done between 15 and 17 weeks to test me for the possiblitiy that I am a carrier of an abnormality that could be passed to the baby. She said that I would probably test positive because I have had 2 m/c. She said a scan would then be done to check baby and it would more than likely show that all is normal. Have any of you done this? What exactly is it?

[candie26]

Maternal Serum Genetic Screen (Triple Screen or Triple Marker)
Test done at 16

[deanne11]

I had it done with my first pregnancy and all was well.

I didn't know any better so I went for all those blood tests....

I am concerned as to why the dr thought you'd test positive for abnormalities just because you have had m/c in the past.

My first pregnancy was perfect and have a perfect 2.5 yr old girl

Then I had 3 m/c last year and pregnant again....all seems healthy to me and the drs don't expect any problems with my baby just b/c I had previous m/c.

Were your m/c due to something specific?

[anxiousmomtobe?]

I had the tests done with my son and with this one as well.  I will get all the results on the 30th.
If they think there is a problem we wil have to decide on whether or not to have amnio.

With my son my odds went from 1in75 for Downs to 1 in 1500 after the test.

[nalla]

Hi, congrats on your pregnancy!
As some of these ladies know on this site I am all for the tests. My son was born with open spina bifida and me taking that test showed that he had it. The most important thing in my opinion, is that if we wouldn't have found this out before our son was born he probably would have been born vaginaly and that would have caused a lot of problems because it's not safe for a baby born with this to be born vaginaly. He could have become paralized, gotten an infection and died. Those chances would have been very high. When the blood test came back positive that Nathan might have this we told ourselves that no matter what we were going to keep him. But everything that we went through during the pregnancy, all the emotions, all the fear, all the sadness we had to go through while we were pregnant would have been a million times worse if we had just found out after he had been born. We had SO much to do before he was born. We had to find a million Dr.s, therapists, find a Dr. to even deliver him. We had time to greive. Even though we were going to keep him no matter what, you still need to greive for the "perfect" baby that you thought you were going to have. Your family needs the time to prepare. After he was born there were so many things going on. He had to have a very serious surgery less than 24 hours after he was born, among other surgeries. He was in the hospital for 5 weeks after he was born. The stress of that was really really hard, and I honestly don't know how well I would have handled all of that if we wouldn't have prepared in every way we could have before he was born.
When anybody asks me about this I always give my opinion, and my opinion is get the test. I have heard women say that they don't want to go through the stress if they end up getting a positive blood test. But in my opinion, the stress of not knowing and having a baby born with spina bifida is SO much worse. I don't know how I would have handled it if I didn't get the test and our baby would have been born vaginaly and him getting extra sick or even dying because I chose not to take the test.
My opinion is very strong about this. I used to be one of those women that said I wouldn't take the test. With my other children I didn't take the test. For some reason with my last one I did and I thank God all the time that I did take the test. I know all of the things that could have happend to him if I didn't. (he is my 4th)
I know that with Spina bifida it's dangerous for the baby to be born vaginaly, I don't know about the other conditions.
The way I look at it, is take the test for the wellbeing of the baby.
Good luck and I hope I didn't confuse you anymore than you already are.

[tiredbuthappy]

i also refused the tests for downs at that point (although i did do the alpha fetal protein test to check for signs of spina bifida). i hope you misunderstood what the doctor said. he may have meant that your previous miscarriages were due to a certain form of downs that is incompatible with life. (at what point did you miscarry, and were the babies tested for genetic problems??) perhaps he meant that you would get what they refer to as a "screen positive" which simply means that your chances of having a baby with downs is slightly increased. most of these positives end up with healthy babies, and ultrasoudns and other tests can confirm this.

[candie26]

My first m/c was a chemical pregnancy. The second was a "normal female karotype." (I requested results from tests). I will have another visit before I have to decide. I really don't know what to do!

[ImmortalOne]

I refused to have the testing done, because of the stress of waiting and the possibility of stress if we got a positive test.  We choose to deal with whatever comes along.

[nalla]

tiredbuthappy- I'm happy to hear that you decided to get the spina bifida testing done. I'm assuming all went well with the test?