Question about 1st trim. Screening for Down Syndrome

[Nini2686]

Hi Ladies, I will be going for another u/s at 12 weeks. I just received a package from the lab that includes alot of paperwork about "1st Trimester Prenatal Screening for Down Syndrome. They will also be checking for other birth defects. I really don't know how I feel about this. I will have to give blood and later on the paperwork states that they will perform amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling. Has anyone had these tests down before? Are they necessary? If I found out my baby had Down Syn. I don't think I would be so quick to say take it out because I believe God has a reason for everything. Your opinions would be helpful.

[teachkindergarten]

Where can I find more information about the false positive problem the blood tests result in?

[kjbutcher]

These are all different tests.  The downs test is blood and a sonogram...my favorite part of my pregnancy...it was about an hour of watching baby move and play and it looked like a normal baby but small enough that it could move all around.  
The amnio and cvs are optional and I believe that they will not ask you to do them unless they find some other sort of problem.  i think my doc asked me if I was interested and I said no so we never spoke of it again.  

[kellyjo82801]

My doctors did an amniocentesis when I was 5 months pregnant with my daughter. The test came back negative and I have a healthy 7 year old girl. I'm personally glad I did it regardless if it's a false positive. In that case if they would of came out false positive I would find out more and ask what is the percentage of that test being accurate and I would ask if there is more test that can be done to make sure even more. Like I said I would also prefer to know so I can better prepare myself and my husband for a situation like that, emotionally and knowledge wise. But again everyone is different on what choice they want to make and how they feel about it.

[JoyRenee]

You have the option to not do it.

I never did it with my girls. Why pay all that money if you wouldn't abort? And as avik7 said there's a lot of false positives. So you may be told your child has a high chance of having Downs and then they're born normal.

Amnio also carries a risk of miscarriage.

I'd definitely not do it. I don't plan on doing any genetic tests.

[avik7]

i know i go in for a u/s screening for downs, spina bifida on the 25th. Im pretty sure u can decline everything. I dont know much about them, but i know when my sis was preg she got some test done and it came back pos for downs...they made her go through genetics counciling and all..they say there are a lot of false positives in this test. when she got the results back it was a false positive. she is now preg again and she said she thinks she is going to opt out. i dont think i would get a amnio done tho...i dont know what all im going to do.

[ginhut03]

I have not had that done, but my husband and I discussed what we are going to do when the time comes to have it done and have decided not to do any of it.  They come back as a false positive often (as it did with my friend-who almost had an abortion because of it-she had a healthy baby girl!!) and even if our baby does have down syn its not going to change how much we love him/her!!  So I said all of that to say this....the tests are not necessary and do come back with false positives so I do not believe it is worth the risk of getting it done as it would not change what I would do.  If worse comes to worse and you give birth and the baby has down syn and you can't handle it, you could give it up for adoption-there are so many couples out there who can't have children!! Sorry this was so long but I feel very passionate about this subject because like you I believe God has a reason for everything and only gives you what you can handle!!  Good Luck with you decision!!