Week 15: Blood Tests
One major decision we had to make was the blood tests offered around the 15 week marker. These are to determine the risk of Downs and Edwards syndromes.
The NHS is very keen on saying these blood tests are not conclusive but only give an indication. Most literature will say that around 1 in 20 tests will come back high risk, and further tests are required. If this happens, don’t panic, it may need a scan or at worst an amniocentesis. The chances are these will come back OK, the odds are certainly in your favour. Put it this way, if it was a horse you’d be stupid not to back it.
There’s plenty of information on both conditions, what the NHS gave us was pretty good, and there’s always extra help on the web. With that, I’m not going to rewrite anything else.
What this post is for is to give one bit of advice. And that is to ask yourselves “why are we having the test?”. There is absolutely no point in having the test unless you have discussed in advance what your actions will be if the results come back with either risks or certainties.
We had the test, and the discussion before the test. We had put our theoretical Downs baby years into the future once we’d died. And that’s what helped made our decision. We couldn’t have our child institutionalised because they had nobody to reciprocate the unconditional love they had to give. You may just want to know in advance to prepare your lives for the arrival of a Downs or Edwards baby. You may just think it unfair to have a Downs or Edwards baby in today’s world, never mind 40 or 50 years from now. For me personally it was hard because it conflicts with my view on abortion. For me terminations shouldn’t be taken lightly, it shouldn’t ever be for cosmetic or contraceptive reasons, but I do recognise a place for terminations in rape cases, serious abnormalities, significant health risks to the mother or baby etc.
Discuss what you’ll do before you take the test. It was the most difficult discussion we’ve ever had, but we had the luxury of that discussion being in a time that was not emotional, it was not clouded by a devastating result. That way we knew that if we stuck to that decision our conscience would be clear in the knowledge we had made it without being under that emotional strain.
Anyway, the test result came back as a low risk, and that discussion was rendered purely academic. But I’m glad we had it before the test, I would not relish the thought of having it after getting a high risk result. And it reassured the pair of us that we were like minded, so it was a bonding moment too.
Remember, it’s not a horse, but if it was the sensible money is on "All-Clear" at 1000/1 odds-on favourite.
http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/ency/edwards_syndrome.jsp
http://www.downs-syndrome.org.uk/default.aspx
