Between your 11 and 13 weeks, many doctors send their expecting patients for an NT screening. Essentially, a geneticist estimates the chances your baby will have either Down's Syndrome or a Trisomy Disease (there are a few and if the baby makes it to term, it won't live long).
They assess your risk based on three factors: maternal age at time of delivery, measurement of fluid behind baby's neck, and blood work from the mom, but it measures something that the fetus makes, not the mom. So two factors are from baby and one is from mom.
Typically after this test is when people feel confident announcing their population to the greater world.
A week before my test, at 11.5 weeks, I went to the geneticist's office. My doctor doesn't perform this screening in her office. I had to give some blood. Oddly enough, at this highly private moment, I ran into someone I know. He had told me previously that his wife was expecitng their second, but I hadn't told him about my pregnancy.
Some people give blood the same day as the ultrasound, but I opted to go a week early because I would be able to get results the same day as the U/S, and by now we all know I am a worrier about such things and didn't want to wait even longer.
The following week I returned with my husband and my mom who was in town. The place was packed. They called us in for the ultrasound, which was an external for those wondering. It is so amazing to see the progress of the baby on this ultrasound at 12.5 to the one at 9 weeks. My mom was floored because they didn't have ultrasounds when she had my sister and I and the ones on tv don't do the experience justice. The baby was turning and kicking and waving its little arms.
I had been such a wreck that they would go in and the baby wouldn't still be alive. I know that seems crazy, but it happened to my cousin and clearly I don't have the best luck in this department.
The ultrasound tech refused to take a guess at the gender. I know it is early but I know people who found out at this point. She also wouldn't comment on the baby's neck fluid which is one of the three factors they were screening.
After the picture show, we went to the lobby until my husband and I were called in to meet with the geneticist. Our results were as good as we could have hoped for. Despite being 32 at the time of delivery my baby's genetic probably of having one of these diseases was as good as a twenty year old. Essentially they say for my age the odds of the baby of having Down's is, let's say, 1 in 550 but when you combine the neck measurement and the blood test, it is reduced to less than 1 in 10,000. Same for trisomy. We were later tested for SMA, a musclar disease which came back normal. My husband asked so many questions that my mom in the waiting room was in a near panic because she saw other couples quickly going in and out and we were in there forever.
All in all, it is a scary experience but so reassuring to have it behind you. It also made me feel better about starting a family at a later age. While it is true every baby will be different, at least I know that if I wait a couple of years for number 2, it isn't predetermined that the baby's risk of a disease is so much higher, my age is only one factor.
After this test, I felt so much more at ease. To be honest, I am 16 weeks now and those doubts I had before the test have gone away.
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