are you planning to do any of the big tests we have coming up?

[sunbaby]

reffering to the AFP testing and the big 18-20 week sonogram.

i am under 35, so the AFP is just a blood test for me, and since it has such a high rate of false positive, i am thinking i will skip it. i would not abort in any case, but i guess if there was going to be something very wrong with my baby it would be nice to have time to prepare. especially somethin incompatible with life. still, i think i will take my chances.

the sonogram, however, i will do. and this is going to sound so silly, but the biggest reason is i want to know the gender. i didnt find out with dd because dh was strongly opposed, and it drove me nuts. i dont know why. we certainly will be keeping the info from anyone who might give us very gender specific gifts, because we just dont want that. i have no idea why it is so big to me to know. maybe becuase in dh's family there is a ton of pressure for a boy : but i also think it is just a very personal curiosity i have.
so then i guess i will let the tech go ahead and peek at all the other stuff, like brain, heart, spine but i am not terribly worried about that.
i do feel sorta bad doing the sono just to find gender, since i would otherwise be having a sonogram free baby. i dont know what it is with me. i sound kind of shallow to myself, since i do believe ther may be risks involved in ultrasound, and i am usually such a big fanatic about trusting nature more than technology, so this is just weird for me.

anyway, what choices are you making and why?

[danaalex]

i don't do the AFP. as for the 20 week U/S. if we are staying in Fl for that i don't think i will do it. my OB would do it and i just don't trust her doing an U/S after the first one she did. she told me i miscarried, and then ooops no you didn't miscarry, that must be your cervix, ooops, no that's not your cervix that's something else...................

don't think i want someone that unsure doing another one on me. if we move and i decide to get one i will have an U/S tech do it, but i will only have one done if i continue to be this big to rule out twins. i don't want to know what this baby is, until delivery

[sunbaby]

oh my. that sounds like a very traumatic ultrasound, danaalex. why is this woman even performing ultrasounds? i think i would pass too, if that was my experience. the biggie at 20 weeks here is performed by an ultrasound tech who specializes in it.

[wasabi]

No AFP for me this time or last time. I'll do the u/s at 19 weeks just to check that everything is there. I wouldn't abort but would like a chance to prepare myself for any problems that might be there. I feel that one u/s in the second tri is reasonable. I wouldn't do frivilous u/s or early or late u/s that don't have a medical purpose but I'm comfortable with one.

[mrzmeg]

I didn't do the AFP last time and won't this time. I'm going to do the one ultrasound because I think it will really put my mind at ease, and I'm also obsessing over whether Tristan will have a brother or sister. I think having an "all's clear" (or knowing about and being able to come to terms with a problem) will really make the last half of my pregnancy much more peaceful.

[proudmamanow]

We're not planning on having the AFP or any further ultrasounds at this pt. Our midwife's office doesn't perform them, so we'd have to make special arrangements, and having already had 2 early u/s we feel that's enough.

Though I have to say as weeks pass with no u/s I do start to wonder;
Melanie--I can see your point about putting your mind at ease. Both Beth & I have started to dream about dopplers and about getting another u/s as I think we are both anxious about Mondays mw appointment (when we hope to hear the hb)..and since we are doing doppler anyway... But I have always been quite firm that I didn't want to know the sex and I wouldn't want to accidentally find out....
indecisive, a bit, but definitely no AFP. At 30 I'm not terribly high risk and we would never terminate a pregnancy...
interesting thread!

[Stream]

No AFP for us last time or this time. I have a pretty strong feeling that we would get a high result even if there was nothing wrong, partly b/c DD has some soft markers for spina bifida (she doesn't have it and they weren't noticed until waaaay after she was born-- 6 mo. or so). We will have an u/s mainly b/c SIL (who is 9) was born with major birth defects that, if present, would make me feel better delivering at the children's hospital rather than at home. The peace of mind is nice too, and we might get one even without the family history, but that's enough to seal the deal for me.

[KattieFirstTimer]

I had my blood drawn for the AFP test on Monday. At first, I was debating over it, but finally decided to have it done to know for sure. If something was wrong, we want to be prepared for it before birth.

My dh and I both want to know the gender, so we're definitely having the U/S done. I've scheduled it for Nov 12 at 18w2d. We're very excited to finally have another peek at the baby

[LiminalOne]

We're not planning on doing either the AFP or the U/S, but I do have to say that I had to really think through whether I was ok not knowing the gender for this 2nd baby.

The funny thing is that I've always NOT wanted to know the gender and have always struggled to understand other people's desire to know in advance. I try to raise my ds as free of gender expectations as possible and always feel (on some level at least) like gender is overrated as information on your child's personality, but I was a little concerned that I would feel a bit of disappointment at the moment of birth (certainly not a time to feel that tinge) if the baby isn't a girl. This realization really came about in talking to a friend of two boys who felt slightly disappointed at her second and last child's birth. She says that she had to mourn the loss of an adult mother-daughter relationship and that really struck home with me.

But on the other hand, I'm hoping to cultivate a close relationship with all of my children that continues onto adulthood and maybe can find that confidante relationship that I have with my mother (that my brothers lack) with sons as well as daughters.

So, the long and short of it, is that I'm not going to find out now, but just live with the moment and believe in the power of forging new roads with my son(s) and daughter..

more than you wanted to hear....

[ctdoula]

I didn't have the Quad Screen (I did have it w/dd, but dh & I decided not to this time). We are having an u/s on Nov 17 (20w1d). I used to work in fetal/infant mortality & honestly know WAAAAYYYY too much about the bad things that can go wrong. I **need** to see for myself that everything is okay with the baby. We are planning to find out gender. I'm not a patient person & it would make me nutty to wait, LOL. But, that's just me. To each their own & my own feeling is, it's a surprise no matter when you find out

I'll also do the GTT later on because I have PCOS & it makes me more likely to have GD (although I didn't w/my dd, TG!!).

[MaryLang]

We're not doing the AFP, but the ultrasound for sure.

[aprildawn]

we opted out of the quad screen. our u/s is scheduled for next wed (i'll be 18 wks).

with dd i would have been just fine now knowing the gender, but this time around i'm dying to find out. so, like sunbaby, i'm only concerned about the gender. really. i'm not worried about anything else in the least. though, our doctor delivers at a hospital in a small town, so if there's a major problem detected it'll be good to know so we can plan to deliver at a large hospital downtown with a nicu and all that stuff.

[natashaccat]

I'm torn on AFP, I opted not but don't feel very confident about the descision. I'm just not sure that I'm a strong enough person to deal with major dirth defects and I'd like to have plenty of time to prepare...honestly if it were a more accurate test I'd do it w/o question. I finally decided against it though because I'm not quite in the high risk group age (I'm 31) and I'm even more afraid of false +.

I've heard rumors that my birth center does a mandatory 20-22 wk US because they are very conservative about higher risk births. I did US at 14 weeks to confirm due date and that was very reasuring to me. If the sex is obvious I don't mind knowing but I'm not feeling a strong need to know right now.

[danaalex]

simone, the U/S might be able to tell you two huge things that could come out of a true positive AFP anyways, one is spina bifida, they can usually see that on the U/S. not always, but usually. and anencephaly (sp) ( no brain) sometimes they can tell this too. depending on if the skull is growing or not. the others, trisomy disorders, aren't usually looked for unless they are suspected. i just think there is such a high rate of false + with the AFP that it's not always worth it. but that's just my opinion

[natashaccat]

Originally Posted by danaalex

simone, the U/S might be able to tell you two huge things that could come out of a true positive AFP anyways, one is spina bifida, they can usually see that on the U/S. not always, but usually. and anencephaly (sp) ( no brain) sometimes they can tell this too. depending on if the skull is growing or not. the others, trisomy disorders, aren't usually looked for unless they are suspected. i just think there is such a high rate of false + with the AFP that it's not always worth it. but that's just my opinion

Thanks for the reasurance, I really need it.

I'm worrying about so much more about everything with this pg, draw back of actually "doing my homework" this time around. I blindly did everything my OB told me with dd1, not a good thing to do it turns out. I'm determined to take a far more active and educated role in managing this PG but I find the taking on the burden of descision making to be so much more stressfull than ignorant bliss.

[saharasky]

I am not planning on doing any of the testing unless truly warranted.

Ultrasounds are not recommended for routine use as they have not yet been tested adequately.

[KattieFirstTimer]

Just heard back from the OB's office, my AFP test from last Monday came back negative. I'm so relieved I'm not in the high risk category, but all the false positives concerned me a bit. Glad that's over with!!! Now, I have the ultrasound to look forward to in less than 2 weeks.

A friend of mine said when she was pregnant the nurse recommended her to drink some caffeine before the ultrasound so the baby will be more active. For those of you finding out the gender, are you trying any tricks to ensure an active baby?

[Stream]

Kattie,

We're not finding out the gender this time, but we did last time. I avoided caffeine pretty religiously, so I went the sugar route to help the baby feel the need to be a bit more active. I drank a big glass of OJ right before the u/s and that worked nicely. Good luck!

[tumbleweed]

I don't think the AFP or quad screen is done here. Not sure. If they do it, I'll get it done, if not, I won't lose any sleep over it. It's not a test I've put much stock in, so I'm kind of indifferent.

I moved to Japan two weeks ago, and there's enough of a language barrier as it is. Conformity is very important too, so I have to really pick my battles.

This clinic does have doctors that speak (some) English, so it's my choice of clinic. They do an US at every visit, so that answers that question! :LOL

[ctdoula]

Originally Posted by saharamama

Ultrasounds are not recommended for routine use as they have not yet been tested adequately.

Hmmm... where are you getting this information? There are a lot of half-baked articles on the internet & there was even an article in Mothering a few years ago w/this as a theme. When I went to the UCONN Medical School library w/a copy of Mothering trying to get evidence to show my boss that u/s wasn't safe (based on the article) I couldn't find ONE research article that stated this. I took the ENTIRE reference list from the article & looked up each of the references & you know what.... the authors took small pieces of studies, articles, etc & twisted them to say what they wanted. I wanted to prove to my boss that u/s was questionable & based on the Mothering article & it's references, I couldn't. Ever since, I've been very suspicious of anything I read in Mothering.

U/s technology is not new, has been used for years, is used on MANY more patients then just pregnant ones, and no credible study that's been published in any respected medicle journal (that i've ever seen) has ever shown it to be harmful.