Did you/will you have the optional birth defect tests done? We're trying to make this decision right now. I'm just not sure.

I got done everything they told me....My husband didnt get the option..

nope we aren't having any of the optional genetic tests done. i don't know half my genetic status (don't know my dad) but i'm still not having it done.

My sister in law had a child with downs that passed away from SIDS when he was a baby....would this change your decision?

My sister in law had a child with downs that passed away from SIDS when he was a baby....would this change your decision?

i dont' know honestly. i wouldn't change the love for my child if i knew they had a disorder. i'd wait until you get your fetal anatomy scan at like 20 weeks or so and see if they find any of the other markers for genetic abnormalities. we didnt' get it done because of the high rate of false positives.
ETA: how old are you? how old was your SIL when she got pregnant?

My sister in law had a child with downs that passed away from SIDS when he was a baby....would this change your decision?

I did with Savannah but not the others. I got a false + with her for Downs. To me it wasnt worth the stress of doing that again.

with what you just posted, i still wouldnt do it.

My sister in law had a child with downs that passed away from SIDS when he was a baby....would this change your decision?

That is a very personal decision that is completely up to you. Myself, I would want to be informed. We didn't have the testing done, but we also had nothing in our background to cause concern.

i dont' know honestly. i wouldn't change the love for my child if i knew they had a disorder. i'd wait until you get your fetal anatomy scan at like 20 weeks or so and see if they find any of the other markers for genetic abnormalities. we didnt' get it done because of the high rate of false positives.
ETA: how old are you? how old was your SIL when she got pregnant?

I'm 25 and my SIL was hmmm....probably late 20's

I'm 25 and my SIL was hmmm....probably late 20's

oh just curious. the older you are the higher chance to have a problem.

I was leaning towards no because the midwife said, if it wouldn't change how you treat this pregnancy then you shouldn't find out.

Even though in the time it takes to get the results, it's nearly impossible to keep yourself from wondering and worrying about what could possibly be wrong with your baby, I wanted to have the tests done just for that reason -- so that I could know before my baby was born and didn't have to wonder and worry for the entire pregnancy. If there was going to be something wrong with my baby, I wanted to know so that I had time to accept it and research it and be prepared for their birth.

I did it for both my boys and I will do it again for this baby. :)

I didn't get any testing done, the reason being except for the Amino they all have a high rate of false +'s.

I did with DS#2 and this one. I'd rather be able to prepare myself either way prior to the birth...

I'm opting out on the one that tests for downs because it has a high rate of false +'s.
I am however opting for the CVS test at 11wks.

I got it done with my dd but only because there was a risk of her having sickle cell and we just wanted to be sure. If there is no possible risks then I wouldn't get it but the incident with ur SIL would definitely make me consider it at least.

I personally do not do those tests. I do not feel the test is accurate enough.

I didnt get any tests done. Both of my parents are addopted and dont know their "parents" or atleast my dad dosent know his very well. My dad has 5 sisters and all their kids are fine.
It was never an issue. My dh has terrets (sp?) super mild. So i was perpared and still am for an issue with that.
Its something you have to think about. Do you wanna know? Just remember God wont give you anything you cant handel! Good Luck

I did to the testing for downs but I was older in age (33) and Adam has a history of it in his family but that was the only one we did if the dr would of suggested more i would of done them

I got every test that they suggested/wanted me to do. In my mind, I want to know upfront, that way I have time to prepare and make the appropriate decisions.

Nope, we declined on the first pregnancy and with this one. It wouldn't change the love we have for this baby nor that he is our child, so we didn't want to have the tests done :)

I had them done with each pg and if I got pg again I would have them done again, too. I would want to know so we could prepare. I'm a planner so I would want things planned out and be prepared.

nope we aren't having any of the optional genetic tests done. i don't know half my genetic status (don't know my dad) but i'm still not having it done.

same here. :yes

I am going to love my child no matter what "defect" it may be born with, so I dont care to find out. JMO.

when i get pregnant, in like a decade, I will not have that done.
It wont change the decision to have the child, and I wouldn't want the stress.

Disabilty runs in my family like woah. My sister is very serverely retarded, I had a great uncle with fragile X, and an uncle who was an invalid.

There is such a high chance that child of mine could have disabilities, but as I wouldn't love them any less, I see no reason that I would test.

No I had no testing done because it wouldn't have changed anything for me

I got every test that they suggested/wanted me to do. In my mind, I want to know upfront, that way I have time to prepare and make the appropriate decisions.

Thats exactly how I feel. I had all the tests done. And even though I had a scare I would do it again.

Yes we will. In our opinion, it is better to know and educate ourselves so we are fully prepared to do all that we can for our child, than to just ignore the possibilities and be clueless when the baby is born.

Given that this is not a diagnostic test and is mearly additional information I didn't do it. But like you I posted a thread and talked to friends about if they did it or not... and well the majority was no and the ones who did had bad experiences, like dr's saying that they were having a child with downs... when in fact they weren't. http://militarysos.com/forum/showthread.php?t=78408&highlight=quad+screen here is the thread with a few more replies if you want to check it out. Good luck in your decision making! :d

I did, just to be careful

I did not have it done. The only tests I did were the normal blood tests and the screening for GD.

I had them done with each of mine. DD was fine but I got a false positive for spinal biffida(sp) with DS. They did an in depth ultrasound and he was fine. They then wanted to do an amino and I said no. From what I saw on the U/S(I am no Dr) I didn't feel the need. if something looked odd or the Dr said something looked weird I would have had an amino. I had an amino with DD for other reasons so I didn't want to do that again unless I really had to.

nope didn't do it because i was too late in the pregnancy by the time I got to an actual doctor(hard time finding one to accept my insurance till I was around 18 weeks) but given the next one I won't do it...since they have a history of false positives a lot.

It's a tough decision between wanting to be prepared and the inconsistency of the testing. I didn't have it because i didn't want to be stressed about it. I had a couple friends that had it and got positives and went through hell waiting for the amnio to determine that the baby was fine. my doc told me that there was a higher chance of me having a miscarriage from the amnio than there was of me having a baby with a genetic disorder. to me, it was no question.

I don't have anything in my background that would worry me, but we don't have a background on my dh because he's adopted and his mom can't seem to find anything and isn't even sure she had a full medical background on him when they got him. We weren't worried about anything coming back but I did have the blood test done.

We decided not to.. it isn't that accurate and we knew that even if it came up positive we would not terminate the pregnancy..and we would NOT get an amnio so we didn't think there was a point to doing it and getting either of us stressed out about it.

It's a tough decision between wanting to be prepared and the inconsistency of the testing. I didn't have it because i didn't want to be stressed about it. I had a couple friends that had it and got positives and went through hell waiting for the amnio to determine that the baby was fine. my doc told me that there was a higher chance of me having a miscarriage from the amnio than there was of me having a baby with a genetic disorder. to me, it was no question.

yep my dr. just told me that today

My sister in law had a child with downs that passed away from SIDS when he was a baby....would this change your decision?


I had a baby who died of SIDS and he did not have any problems. He was health. You can't tell from a test if you baby is going to die or not from SIDS. It is just something that happens, without any warning.

I got every test that they suggested/wanted me to do. In my mind, I want to know upfront, that way I have time to prepare and make the appropriate decisions.
same here.

We had the tests done with both pregnancies. With DD I tested + for Downs and we did the amnio to know for for. It didnt change my feelings for the baby and I was still going to keep her, but it was for me to prepare for what I might be dealing with. I know nothing about Downs and I wanted to prepare if I was going to have a child with it!

I had them done. I didnt know much about it at the time, I was 19.

I only had the blood test done.

Speaking of which no one has called me about it...wonder if that means the risk is very low for DS.