question about the Triple Screening

the mid wife asked me today if i wanted one.
and asked if i had one before. i was not sure.
she looked it up and i did have one for the twins but my ob must have just had it done and not
asked because i dont remember him asking me.
did you have it done?
i am just worried that if i have it done i would be a nervous wreck if something came out positive, KWIM
just wondering what others did
thanks

 

I have never had any testing done (besides normal labwork & US) with either pregnancy. They way I look at it is, it's not going to change me having this baby, and knowing how much I worry anyways, I'd rather just deal with "issues" when the baby was born.

On a side note, I have a friend in my twin's club who has b/g twins. She had the triple screen done, and normal US, etc, all came back normal. She was 25 when she had them, and they discoevered her daughter had Down's Syndrome when they were two weeks old (they were born at 28 weeks). So for whatever reason, it didn't show up on any of that stuff anyways...

 

QUOTE(littletwinmom @ Feb 4 2009, 06:38 PM) [snapback]1176099[/snapback]
I have never had any testing done (besides normal labwork & US) with either pregnancy. They way I look at it is, it's not going to change me having this baby, and knowing how much I worry anyways, I'd rather just deal with "issues" when the baby was born.

On a side note, I have a friend in my twin's club who has b/g twins. She had the triple screen done, and normal US, etc, all came back normal. She was 25 when she had them, and they discoevered her daughter had Down's Syndrome when they were two weeks old (they were born at 28 weeks). So for whatever reason, it didn't show up on any of that stuff anyways...



Thanks that i what i have heard. also that people have had it come up positive and the baby was perfect.

 

I have never had one done. Actually this pregnancy was the first time I remember a Dr. asking if I wanted it. I just said I wouldn't abort anyways. I know there are certain things they look for in the big u/s anyways.

 

I didn't have it done with either the twin pregnancy or this one. I also knew it wouldn't change whether I'd have this baby ... so why worry all my pregnancy if the triple screen were abnormal? I just didn't want that stress.

 

I wouldn't abort either, so always choose not to have the tests (or the expense of the tests). The only positive I can see to having one would be to prepare you for problems, if there might be one. If you think that it would be more stressful, traumatic, etc to find out when the baby's born, rather than being prepared for it, you know? But it just seems to me that it's not a necessity for us, so I haven't had it done. And my SIL is one who had a false positive for Down Syndrome, with one of her boys.

 

I must be in the minority. While I wouldn't abort a baby either, I did have the AFP (triple screen) done with both pregnancies. With the twins, I had it done and it came back normal (even though it was twins and that can sometimes skew the numbers). Had I known much about it before I had it done, I probably wouldn't skipped it with the twins. With Olivia, at my very first appt I was given a sheet of paper on if I wanted the triple screen bloodwork, amnio or an u/s (I think around 11 weeks) or nothing. I choose the bloodwork b/c it was the least invasive. While I wouldn't abort, I would like to be able to prepare myself for the possibility of handling a child with special needs before they were born and it was a bigger shock.

 

With the twins, it was recommended I do not have it done because of the results being wrong because of multiples. I did have it done with Evan just to be prepared if anything came back off. I would never have aborted.

 

Nope. Too many false positives even with singletons for my liking. I did have the routine u/s but that was it.

 

I think it's actually a quad-screen now (my sister is an OB and told me this). I've never had it done though. I always refuse it b/c I wouldn't do anything even if it came back positive and it's an expensive test just to have it done. I've also heard that there are a lot of false positives for both twins and singletons.

 

According to my ob/gyn the quad screen/triple screen is more likely to come back false positive for certain cases....like twin pregnancies or when you have bleeding (like my pregnancy with Julianna). They actually didn't offer it to me with the twins because they really don't know exactly what baseline 'normal' values are for twin pregnancies. (at least that's what they told me.) According to my u/s tech you can actually tell more about the health of a baby from the u/s measurement of the nuchal fold (I think that's what it's called.) Unfortunately most of the time women are not in for an u/s early enough for the optimal time for it... and unless insurance will specifically cover it they usually don't have them in for it. I happened to get that done with Julianna because I had a ton of early ultrasounds, so they automatically did it for me. According to her, a nasal bone present at around 9 weeks, I think, is a better indicator of the baby not being a downs' syndrome baby than the triple screen. Pretty amazing stuff! Anyway, I opted out of the triple screen for all 3 of my pregnancies.