Hellobee Boards

Is this the second trimester testing? We didn't do the first trimester but I decided I wanted to do the second trimester testing because it would give us a chance to prepare ourselves if something was wrong. Honestly, in the first trimester, I wasn't ready to make any big decisions. Like @tequiero21 said, it's just an ultrasound and blood work - nothing invasive.

Our u/s is actually the same as our 20 (18) week u/s so I don't get an extra one.

@mediagirl: NT screening is first trimester.

@ALittleP: From what I've read on other baby boards, most women who choose not to have the testing do so because a) if the baby does end up having a high risk for down syndrome and/or other issues, it wouldn't matter to that couple, they'll love the baby no matter what and b) it's a test that shows what your risk rate is, but a lot of women are afraid of false positives and then of being worried throughout their whole pregnancy (and then end up having healthy babies).

With all that being said, I had the NT scan for the same reason @tequiero21 did: we wanted to be prepared.

we did it because its non invasive and there was nothing to lose by doing it. I wasnt prepared to do anything invasive like amnio

I don't plan on it because if positive, all it'd do would cause me to start stressing early, and it's not even a conclusive test. My favorite cousin had Down Syndrome. It's not something to abort over.

I will admit that I didn't care about the results, since we wouldn't have changed anything if they were bad. I just wanted a first trimester ultrasound so I could get a peek at the baby, and it was covered by my insurance, so why not? But I will admit it was a relief to hear good results.

Also, I just want to point out that the test also looks for odds of Trisomy 13 and 18, not just Down syndrome. I think it's important to consider what you would do if you got unhappy results when deciding whether to take the test. Would you get more invasive testing to get a more definitive answer? Would you just worry your entire pregnancy? Would you research and prepare yourself to deal with a special needs child? Would you abort? I think the answer to "What would I do next if I got bad results?" can help you determine whether or not testing is a good idea for you.

We initially planned to do it because it's covered by our insurance, so why not, but in the end have decided not to because it just wouldn't change anything, and has the potential for a ton of stress. We won't terminate the pregnancy for anything. We're pretty confident that everything will be fine, as we're both fairly young and healthy. And if it's not fine when the babies are born, we'll deal with it then when we know for sure. There's a decent risk of false positive, especially if the lab happens to mess up our numbers bc of twins, and the extra worry would be more stressful. And I'm not willing to risk miscarriage for the diagnostic testing. If the NT was non invasive and definitive it would be a different story.

That said, we do have full ultrasound scans scheduled at 16 and 20 weeks, so I would guess that some major issues could be identified at those or later appts.

We didn't do it because I didn't want a false positive. I also didn't want anymore tests than needed, so we skipped it.

We chose to do so because it is not invasive and because oftentimes if your baby has a genetic abnormality (such as downs) the u/s tech will detect this at your anatomy scan (which occurs during weeks 18-20). Further, we knew that if anything was potentially wrong, that might change our lives financially (I'm the primary breadwinner currently but am the only one that can really stop working if we had a disabled child since my husband has more earning potential longterm) we would want to know and plan for it.