Throughout the pregnancy, I know that Guy and I will need to make lots (hundreds? thousands?) of decisions... what color to paint the room, what to name the baby, pampers or cloth diapers, etc etc etc. However, I was not fully prepared for the weight of this first important decision that has been tossed my way -- do I want genetic screening to test for downs syndrome?
For those of you who did not know, I am OLD to be having a baby. The risks for chromosomal defects go up along with the mother's age. I know lots of people who were my age or older when they became pregnant and they all had healthy babies.
The doctor has offered me choices... sequential screening, which could lead to amniocentesis if the risk is high or chorionic villus sampling (aka CVS, not to be confused with the pharmacy!). On one hand, sequential screening sounds good -- the test involves screening my blood, so there is no risk to the baby. But it is not as effective as amnio or CVS -- only 90% accurate with potential false positive/negative results. And, if the results indicate high risk, well, I'm off to have a needle inserted through my belly anyway for the amnio... CVS, while a bit riskier since it is intrusive, offers more peace of mind. The cells being sampled are from the placenta which have the same chromosomes as the baby. About as accurate as you can get in the testing world. It is also done earlier in the pregnancy, which would give me more time to prepare for the worst.
We haven't made a decision yet which route to take, but I don't have long... the CVS procedure, if we opt to have it done, needs to be done in the next couple of weeks. Part of me says to do it, since it is the most accurate. I guess you'll have to come back and read more to find out which way we decided to go...
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