Testing During Pregnancy

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Testing During Pregnancy

Triple Screen, Anmiocentesis and Chorionic Villus Sampling Tests during Pregnancy

What's a tired mom-to-be to do? Buy a Snoozer Pillow

You may kid around with your family about having a baby girl to ‘go shopping with”, while your husband or partner is convinced that there is a future NFL player inside of you that will be born kicking!

All kidding aside, when your baby is newly born you will be just like every other loving parent who is in total awe of their child…gender becomes unimportant.

The one thing that’s most important to moms-to-be, though, is a healthy baby (that joyous expression ringing through every delivery room, “ten fingers and ten toes!” isn’t shouted out for nothing, after all!).

Doctors take the health of an unborn baby very seriously, but some moms-to-be take it just as seriously, and they get very worried about their baby’s health during pregnancy. Moms-to-be can worry just as much about tests or screenings recommended by doctors to track the progress of unborn babies or – even more worrisome – find out if there’s a serious health concern with an unborn.

The most common tests recommended by doctors on pregnant women are a Triple Screen test, and either an Amniocentesis or a Chorionic villus sampling (CV Sampling).

This article explains what you need to know about:

• Why doctors advise pregnant women to get these tests – especially moms-to-be around 35 or older?
• What health concerns can these tests detect, and
• Can performing these tests harm an unborn baby in any way – and is one test more harmful than another is?

A triple screen test is like just about any other simple blood test you may have gotten in your life, and it won’t harm your baby. It requires no specific preparations, other than you should be in your 15-22nd week of pregnancy (testing between your 16-18th week is most common) to most effectively determine if your unborn baby may suffer from birth defects or serious brain and spinal conditions like spina bifida, Downs Syndrome or anencephaly.

Women over 35 are at higher risk to have children with serious birth defects or medical conditions, so a triple screen test can help in detecting the possibility of any potential diseases or defects in an unborn baby. However, when a triple screen test does show some concern, including Downs Syndrome, a much more accurate test like an Amniocentesis is generally called for.

Amniocentesis
A highly trained doctor (Perinatologist), using safe ultrasound technology, employs a very fine needle to take a very small sample of amniotic fluid from your uterus, via your abdomen. If you would like you can receive a local anesthetic beforehand, but some women don’t require any pain relief.

Amniocentesis poses a minimal risk of miscarriage to a pregnant woman; but those risks to your unborn baby get even smaller if you have an amniocentesis done after your 16th week of pregnancy.

However, since there are small risks to mother and baby during the very quick amniocentesis procedure, it is usually only done on pregnant women in a high-risk category to deliver children with birth defects like Downs Syndrome, Sickle cell disease, Cystic Fibrosis, Muscular Dystrophy or Tay-Sachs disease.

Your doctor may place you in the high-risk category if your triple test screen was a concern, if your family history shows birth defects, or if you’re 35 and older. For moms-to-be over 35, an amniocentesis is a very worthwhile procedure, since it’s 99.4% accurate.

Chorionic villus sampling
Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS) is an early testing alternative for high-risk pregnant women, including those with a family history of birth defects or women over 35, and CVS can be as effective as an amniocentesis in detecting chromosomal problems and genetic defects, including those mentioned under Amniocentesis.

A doctor performs a CVS procedure (some women say it’s kind of like getting a pap smear) to obtain a tiny sample of CV (chorionic villi) from a baby’s placenta on the wall of the uterus. It’s not as scary as it sounds, and it usually takes only a couple of minutes for the doctor to get the actual sample.

The greatest risk with a CVS is miscarriage, and it does pose a higher risk of miscarriage than amniocentesis – but for high-risk pregnant women, doctors say the greatest benefit of a CVS procedure is early detection, since doctors usually perform a CVS much earlier than an amniocentesis (between 12 – 14 weeks gestation).

All of these tests are to help ease or assuage any concerns the doctor may have detected during a regular prenatal check-up. The important thing to remember is protecting your health and your baby’s.