One baby decision I meant to mention is we decided not to do the screening tests that are available at this point in pregnancy.
Screening tests use blood samples and ultrasound measurements to
assess the baby's chances of having certain chromosomal problems,
including Down syndrome, and trisomy 13 and 18 (which are almost always associated with profound mental retardation).
BUT the test only give us a ratio that expresses the chances of having a
problem, not a definitive yes/no. This
information is supposed to help us decide whether to undergo further diagnostic testing later, which does carry a chance of miscarriage.
The advantage of screening is that it would give us information about
baby's risk of having certain problems, presumably offering us reassurance that nothing is wrong. But
screening doesn't pick up all cases of
Down syndrome (21% not detected), so it may identify a false negative, saying the risk is low when in fact the baby has Downs. Conversely, screening may identify a false positive, leading us to undergo further testing and to worry about baby's
well-being unnecessarily.
I suppose one of the reason to find out this information is to decide if we'd like to terminate the pregnancy. This wouldn't be our decision regardless of any of the test results. Our O.B. told us that if our baby has Downs or other developmental abnormalities (such as a heart condition), we'll likely be able to detect this during our ultrasound at Week 20. Another reason would be to prepare ourselves early mentally and emotionally to have a child with special needs, but given that the odds of false negatives and positives seem high-ish to me, we're choosing to just hope for the best and not worry ourselves.
