Happy New Year.
Since I did not get to party this year, I am refusing to make resolutions. I was fully asleep in bed my 10:30pm on New Year’s Eve (thank you pregnancy) and did not wake up until 8:30am the next morning. I am officially no fun anymore. Thankfully, I don’t feel like retching anymore. I’m still pretty tired though.
So I had my Integrated Prenatal Screening at 12 weeks. This included the ultrasound where I got to see the baby, and a blood test. I have another blood test next week, and then a final ultrasound at 18 weeks. This is all for the IPS. The purpose of this screening is to detect neural tube defects, Trisomy 18 and Downs Syndrome etc.
Here’s what I don’t get.
I do not get the results of the test until I am 18-20 weeks along. At this point, if they detect that there might be a problem, you have the option of going for genetic counselling and then having an amniocentesis done. If they still think there might be a problem with the baby, you can choose to terminate the pregnancy. What the fuck. By that point I will be HALF WAY through my pregnancy. How would I make the decision to terminate at that point??? How could I terminate at that point???
So why did I take this test? I actually have no idea now. When I first started, I thought I would get the results right away. At that stage (12 weeks) I think it would have been much easier to make a decision to end a pregnancy with a damaged fetus. At 20 weeks, I will be doing no such thing. I know worrying will not help so I am trying to relax and think positively.
Sometimes I think that knowing so much about our pregnancies can be a curse. I think we start to expect that, because they are able to offer us so much information, they should be able to give us the reassurance we want when we want it. This of course is not the case. I take my prenatal vitamins and eat healthfully; I exercise and get plenty of sleep. This is all I can do. My grandmother said to me the other day that when she was having babies they didn’t know about folic acid supplements or the effects of alcohol and smoking on the fetus and her kids turned out just fine. Actually, I think she even accused me of being dramatic. You know I probably am being dramatic. I think I need to stop reading about all the scary things that can happen and start enjoying my second trimester, cause it just gets more uncomfortable from here.
Oh, I now have a bump. Yay!
So I had my Integrated Prenatal Screening at 12 weeks. This included the ultrasound where I got to see the baby, and a blood test. I have another blood test next week, and then a final ultrasound at 18 weeks. This is all for the IPS. The purpose of this screening is to detect neural tube defects, Trisomy 18 and Downs Syndrome etc.
Here’s what I don’t get.
I do not get the results of the test until I am 18-20 weeks along. At this point, if they detect that there might be a problem, you have the option of going for genetic counselling and then having an amniocentesis done. If they still think there might be a problem with the baby, you can choose to terminate the pregnancy. What the fuck. By that point I will be HALF WAY through my pregnancy. How would I make the decision to terminate at that point??? How could I terminate at that point???
So why did I take this test? I actually have no idea now. When I first started, I thought I would get the results right away. At that stage (12 weeks) I think it would have been much easier to make a decision to end a pregnancy with a damaged fetus. At 20 weeks, I will be doing no such thing. I know worrying will not help so I am trying to relax and think positively.
Sometimes I think that knowing so much about our pregnancies can be a curse. I think we start to expect that, because they are able to offer us so much information, they should be able to give us the reassurance we want when we want it. This of course is not the case. I take my prenatal vitamins and eat healthfully; I exercise and get plenty of sleep. This is all I can do. My grandmother said to me the other day that when she was having babies they didn’t know about folic acid supplements or the effects of alcohol and smoking on the fetus and her kids turned out just fine. Actually, I think she even accused me of being dramatic. You know I probably am being dramatic. I think I need to stop reading about all the scary things that can happen and start enjoying my second trimester, cause it just gets more uncomfortable from here.
Oh, I now have a bump. Yay!
posted by vegan mum at 11:28 AM
2 Comments:
I did the AFP, Triple Screen and Gestational Diabetes as well... at 16 weeks though, and found out at 18 weeks. Apparently the AFP and TS are supposed to detect multiples because of elevated hCG something levels but mine did not. So I had to go in for a second triple screen after we had the ultrasound at 20 weeks. So if it didnt detect 2 babies then I dont see how accurate it can be. I was also told that there is a chance of false positive, so wtf... you take this bloody test, you stress out about it until your results and then you get a positive, take another rushed test get a negative and get all emotionally confused and fucked up. It seems a little flaky to me.
Dont worry yourself about anything. Are you a downie? No. Is your hubby a downie? no. Then from my non-medical point of view your baby has a slim to none chance of being a downie cause you're not passing on the downie gene. You're taking folic acid and your Maternas and that means that you're doing everything you can to avoid neural tube defects. You're also a young mother, and you're no where near over 35, which is where you get an increased risk of all these birth defects.
Positive thoughts and positive vibes. Enjoy your pregnancy and dont worry about your test results. It'll go by in a flash and before you know it you'll have a little baby to worry about, and none of these crazy prenatal tests.
I stumbled on your blog today. I am almost at 17 weeks and I wondered the same thing about the integrated screening. I had my second blood draw earlier this week at my midwife appointment and yesterday got a call that everything was low risk (even though I have not had my second ultrasound yet). Like you, I could not imagine terminating after 20 weeks but I think another reason it's good to know if your baby may have a genetic defect is the doctors can do more testing and ultrasounds to determine what sort of problmes the baby may have and also know what kind of special care may be needed right at birth.
Anyway, you are very low risk being under 35 so just try to think positively. I know it is hard. We got bad toxoplasmosis results a few weeks ago which proved to be false positives on a susequent testing but it was a very worrisome week of waiting.
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