Blood Tests For Antenatal Screening
Although a pregnant woman’s blood can be tested to see whether her baby has any one of several conditions, it is mainly used to test for spina bifida and Down’s syndrome.
Down’s syndrome is the most common cause of serious mental disability. Young women are at lower risk of having a baby with Down’s syndrome than older women. At the age of 20, your chance of having a baby with Down’s is about 1:1700; at the age of 45, your chance is 1:30. Blood tests are used to give a more accurate assessment of risk than that based on your age alone.
So you may be told that the risk of having a Down’s baby at your age Is 1:200 but the risk according to your blood test Is 1:350. This means that you are at a much smaller risk of having a Down’s syndrome baby than most women of your age. If, on the other hand, your risk according to your age is 1:500 but your risk according to your blood test is 1:60, you are at much higher risk of having a Down’s baby than other women of your age. Most hospitals
use a cut-off point of a risk of 1:250 which means that If your risk Is less than 1:250, your blood test will be described as ‘screen negative’ and if your risk Is greater than 1:250, your test will be described as ‘screen positive’. So, the fact that your test Is screen negative doesn’t mean for certain that your baby does not have Down’s syndrome, and the fact that you are screen positive doesn’t mean that your baby does have Down’s syndrome.
The risk of a baby having spina bifida is not related to the mother’s age. It can however be related to where she lives; more babies are born with spina bifida in some parts of the UK than in others, namely the North West, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Overall, about 4 In every 1000 babies born have spina bifida, but it’s important to remember that spina bifida doesn’t have to be serious. Some children with spina bifida have hardly any problems, while others will need to be in a wheelchair and require care 24 hours a day.
Shirley M. Duran is a mother of two and an author of a variety of related lifestyle issues and topics with which has helped hundreds of mothers become pregnant. If you have any pregnancy questions for which you need answers, it is recommended to visit: http://mypregnancyquestions.info/ Copyright © Shirley M. Duran, All Rights Reserved. If you are interested in using this article make all the urls (links) active. Thank you!
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