quad screen results and a question

[mamapajama]

Hello!

So, my quad screen results combined with the early ultrasound were all normal. I haven't been worried at all, but I happened to ask what the exact numbers were and now I am worried. I have a 1 in 290 chance of having a baby with DS. That doesn't seem like too small of a chance to me. Now, I don't want to worry needlessly, but I am wondering if I should get an amnio (I am 39) My midwives seemed to think everything was great by those test results. Not sure what to do.

[beachlover]

Well only you know what you are comfortable with, but you didn't screen positive because your new risk is lower than your actual age risk. That's a good thing.

You have a less than .003% chance of having a baby with Down Syndrome. That's pretty good odds as far as odds go, but that it's not a guarantee so only you can decide if you think it's worth the slight risk to have an amnio. Some people just need to know for sure to make their decisions.

When I was 35, I skipped all the screens and went straight to an amnio, because I just had to know. I had absolutely no reason to believe there would be anything wrong with my baby, we had a great pregnancy history, healthy children, but it was like somebody was trying to prepare me because when the results came in she didn't have Down's Syndrome she had a horrible, very rare life threatening chromosonal condition. Only 60 cases in the world.

The chance of having a baby with any type of birth defect for any of us at any age is something like 1 in 250.

Good Luck as you wade through all this. I know how difficult it is.

[umsami]

One big part that factors into your numbers is your age... so you're not going to get the 1 in 5000 results no matter what your quad screen reveals. At 39, your chance is 1 in 139 (based on the March of Dimes...almost every site gives sightly different numbers)... so basically, they've almost doubled that.

It would be very unlikely for you to have a child with DS... but I believe the only way to know for sure at this point, would be amnio. You need to ask yourself if knowing one way or the other is worth the risk (albeit small) that comes with amnio. If you don't think you'd terminate the pregnancy if the child had DS, then I don't think I'd risk it. If you would without a doubt terminate, then it might be worth the risk.