hCG and down's

I did the AFP test at 17 week of pregnancy.  The result showed an increased chance of having Down

[jaydens mom]

oh yes I went through the same thing. My levels came back that I would have a extremely high chance of having downs.I was 31 at the time and it came back high enough as to be in my 40's. They wanted me to do amnio but I refused b/c i told them it didn't matter b/c i wasn't going to change my mind about having the baby whether she had downs or not. I had the level 11 sono and all came back fine. They still tried to get me to do amnio but i refused. 2 years later my daughter is perfectly normal and far from down's she is extremely smart and advanced for her age. Don't worry. The afp tests have an extremely high False positive results. Your baby is going to be fine. Enjoy and good luck!!!!!

[bluesky]

Thank you very much for sharing your experience.  We have decided not to take the Amnio anyways, but your experience kinda put some additional peace in our minds.
Thanks and enjoy your life with your doughter.

[Lombard]

Hi,

To amnio or not to amnio is a personal choice.  I had my son in Aug. at age 41 so Down Syndrome was a major concern.  My odds were something like 1 in 10.  We also decided that we would not terminate the pregnancy so said no to the Quad Marker blood test which had a 1 in 3 chance of coming back with a positive marker for DS (meaning that because of my age I was at higher risk for having a DS baby not that I would have a DS baby).  Quad screen offers a lot of good info but if you are an older mom the results automatically get skewed because of age.  If the quad screen is abnormal, the only way to confirm is with an amnio.  We opted not to do the amnio because of miscarriage risk (low at 2% but it took us 3 years to get pg so it wasn't a risk we were willing to take).  We did do an ultrasound at week 20 which looked at certain measurements to determine DS (again this is not a 100% accurate test....depends on equipment and skills of technician).  Ultrasound showed healthy baby and he was indeed healthy at birth.

Here a couple of good sites:
www.ds-health.com/prenatal.htm
www.cchs.net/health/health-info/docs/0300/0386.asp?index=4698

Good luck to you!  I would say that odds are definitely in your favor at age 34 to have a healthy baby.