1st trimester prenatal screening query

Did anyone feel the need to have the first trimester prenatal screening BECAUSE you're pregnant with twins and are considered high risk?

DH and I are agonizing on whether to do this... knowing everything is OK would bring such peace of mind, but on the flipside, it could cause stress (even unecessary stress, from what I understand).

Can anyone give me any input, thoughts, anything that may help sway us one way or the other?? This prenatal screening was never offered with my first pregnancy (a singleton) five years ago... I kinda wish it wasn't offered now, but only because I hate making decisions like this!

 

DH and I initially declined the first trimester screen because we were worried about the possibility of a false positive. After talking with my perinatologist he urged us to get the screen because there are many issues that can come up later with multiples on the u/s and the screening results would be able to negate those suspiscions without doing an amnio (which would be the only option later in pregnancy).

We did get the screen and our numbers were great. Now, I'm 27 weeks and on hospital bed rest because something is going on with my Baby A. I'm so glad we got the screen because if we hadn't, they would want to do an amnio at this point to test for possible chromosomal defects. However, we already know those are ruled out.

It's a personal decision, but to us, it did offer peace of mind. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

We decided to do the testing, ONLY because I was worried about vanishing twin syndrome, and we wouldn't get another u/s until 18wks.

My husband and I read up on the diagnosis the tests were looking for and felt prepared enough to deal with whatever came our way (we weren't going to read the bloodwork results-mostly because of the high rate of false positives with twins-we wouldn't go futher into amnio or csv).
But we did, and all is fine.

It is a very personal decision! Danielle makes a very good point, my dr. didn't share this information with me, wish he had!

Good luck, you'll do what's right for you and your family.

reb

 

I did not test with the boys or this time around. First, the rate a false positive is increased in the instance of multiples. Second, what would I do with the information "if" something were wrong? For me, I was better off without the stress of testing. That said, I was not high risk in any way(besides carrying multiples) nor was I advanced maternal age. Had I had one of those factors, it might have changed my mind.

 

Thank you all for your input!

 

Nope, we declined those with both of my pregnancies, my singleton and twin pregnancy.

 

We just went through this exact debate about 3 weeks ago! It's so difficult but then we opted out of all the testing also. I had a friend who had a false positive and she said it was so difficult to get through and basically in our mind...the miscarriage rate from a CVS or amnio were technically higher than the chance of our babies having downs --we're 31, so we decided to forget it. It's very difficult choice though!!! I read a lot about twins and false positives, so that was also discouraging to me. Good luck with whatever your choice is!