So here's how the test works and how the doctor put it to us.
As most people know, the older the mom the higher risk of having a baby with down syndrome. My wife is only 31 and based on that age her risk is relatively low at 1 in 550. The doctors consider you " high risk" if after the blood work comes back you odds are 1 in 307 or lower.
He also said that he has never once diagnosed a baby as having Down Syndrome based on one of these tests. It is simply a test to calculate your odds based upon certain "markers" in your blood.
With that, our unborn child, has a 1 in 5 chance of having Down Syndrome. Which are the same odds a woman in her late 60's has. We can have further test that have a 99.999999% accuracy rate and know what were dealing with or we can wait and see. The doctor also said we need to think about keeping or terminating the pregnancy if we do opt for the testing and it comes back positive.
My wife and i both looked at each other and said we want the test so we are waiting for the doctor to call us back and let us know where and when to go. He has two specialists he uses for this and said he will schedule with the doctor who can get us in the quickest. My wife will need to have an amneosinteist (spelling is jack on that).. where the doctor will stick a needle in her belly and collect a sample of the fluid protecting the baby. They culture the sample and grow the chromosomes so they can count them. That test will tell us with 99.99999% accuracy two things. #1 if the baby has Down Syndrome and #2 the sex of the baby.
Now we have to wait to find out when we can get it done and then wait two weeks for the results. Its our child and we will have it no matter what... at least we will know what we are up against.
As of right now here odds are 20% the baby has it, which is super scary, but also means theres a 80% chance its fine. 20% doesnt sound like a large chance but when your normal odds only a small fraction of 1%...20 is a Huge number.
lease:
