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Post by AnnieM on Mar 2, 2006 11:23:23 GMT -5
Hi Karen, I am currently 23 weeks pregnant and chose to do th NTF screening at 12 weeks. I was very happy to hear that this screening is about 90% accurate and for me that was a GREAT percent. I was so happy with my results, US and blood work combined my numbers went from 1:100 to 1:2,600 for DS. So I decided not to do any further testing since the results were so good. And after my big 20 week US my numbers went up another 2,000. So I was pleased with my choice and results! Good Luck Annie
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Post by firerose98 on Mar 2, 2006 18:51:18 GMT -5
I was 23 when I had Gillian. I declined the AFP test because I wasn't going to do anything anyways. Interestingly enough my dr. actually said something like "at your age the risk for DS is low, but if you are the 1 in 1200, you are still the 1." I still declined though. Nothing was noted on her Level 2 U/S that showed a sign of down syndrome and despite numerous u/s durning non-stress tests, her heart defect was not detected until after birth.
The only thing that we will request next time is a fetal echocardiogram because that is what scares me most. Gillian was taken away shortly after birth not because of DS but because of the heart defect. I want to be prepared for that if necessary next time around. Otherwise, that will be it. I won't have an amnio or an AFP or anything else like that. I will have all my U/S (I think I had somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 when I was pg with Gillian), but that's it. I will just trust God to give me the child that HE has created for me.
Michelle
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Post by Kristen on Mar 3, 2006 12:34:34 GMT -5
I am in Michelle's boat *waving* Hi Michelle! They picked up nothing with Carter and I got talked into the AFP, which was totally negative and after the level 2 and non-stress test after my own condition led to no amniotic fluid and the big freak out still revealed nothing except a baby that needed to come out NOW, not later. I had nothing with Syd, but around 30 weeks I started freaking out beacuse no one ever explained the no fluid to my satisfaction and she was not a very active baby all along, so I would start worrying and poking her and not sleeping at night...I finally asked for another u/s to tell me there was fluid in there and ease my mind. The doc, of course, wrote it up and looking for DS markers, so it took forever and I had to tell the tech what two things were they had to go look back for (clearer head and neck shots). I said ah, he just wants a shot to see if there is a redundant nauchal fold and bracheocephaly. She goes what? I said extra skin on the neck and flat back of the head. Tell him don't bother, our son has DS and he never had either of those things and no one could tell till he was born - I just wanted to make sure she was still floating in there!
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Post by Radonna on Mar 3, 2006 13:55:02 GMT -5
One good peice of advice about ultrasounds is DON'T take your child with Down syndrome along!! I firmly believe what I went through in my pregnancy with Evan was because they seen Kaden and LOOKED REAL HARD for SOMETHING.
They seen fused fingers hypoplastic left heart syndrome and other markers for Trisomy 18 and he had none of those. While my Mom would call it a miracle. I truely believe in God but it is so hard for me to buy into the "All of the credit none of the blame" That a miracle implies. So I have tried to find a logical reason for the mistakes and the only one I can come up with is they seen Kaden with me and tried to find something. BUT I do have my moments that I think I am Momma to a miracle. THree of them in fact.
Radonna
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Post by laurasnowbird on Mar 4, 2006 8:44:16 GMT -5
I was 42 when we chose to get pregnant again, and 43 two weeks after I delivered Aidan. Although we had Ethan with Down Syndrome already, and were really in the zone because of my age, we declined amnio or CVS. HOWEVER, I wanted as much information as I could get up front (and if I could have had amnio with NO risk to the baby, I would have done it in a minute) so we did the maternal integrated serum screening. It combines blood testing at specific intervals (the first being at 10-13 weeks) with ultrasound, but even with those two combined the accuracy is only 86%.
The 86% accuracy is only if you use a "certified" ultrasound technician, someone who has had special training, and whose ultrasounds had been reviewed and verified for accuracy. For us, that would have required a trip to MSU, and we opted not to do that. Our ultrasound tech had been doing ultrasounds for 25 years, and is going to get the certification, but didn't have it yet. After the testing, my odds went from 1:60 (because of my age) to 1:16,000
I was actually more concerned about things other than DS. (what can I say, like most people, I most fear the unknown)
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Post by kellyds on Mar 4, 2006 12:27:56 GMT -5
Oh, Laura, I know what you mean! I have been pregnant since Joshua (miscarried), so even at my "advanceed age", there is a chance we could have another. I'd be so relieved to find out my baby "only" had Down syndrome. :-)
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Post by Kristin on Mar 4, 2006 23:33:15 GMT -5
I had the triple screen done with my second child as I already had a child with DS, and I was 38. I chose not to have an amnio because the risk of miscarriage was greater than the risk of another child with DS. Once the test was done I was told my new risk was 1 in 10,000 with child number 2. I felt pretty confident that I had nothing to worry about. You can always have the triple screen done, and still do an amnio later if you're not comfortable. I think the triple screen is accurate enough. I've never had an AFP because I didn't feel it was accurate enough. I was told that since I already had a child with DS the AFP was going to come back positive anyway.
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Post by hannahsmomuk on Mar 13, 2006 17:42:36 GMT -5
Hey... Hanna's mom.. since this was someone you know... how did they conclude after the child was born the child in fact did NOT have DS? Was it lab error... or did they do another karyotype of the same cells taken again? A. They boy is actually about 13 years old now, it happened before I had Hannah and she went on TV and talked about it as it was so long ago I couldn't tell you much about what they said, other than she was told that her son had DS and she prepared herself for it and that when he was born he didn't have DS or mosaic DS, nothing
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