Quad Screen Test: Yes or No

We chose not to with both kids because of the high probability of false positives and false negatives. Your OB/GYN should go over the probability of information being incorrect. My understanding from my OB is that there is no correlation to when the test is done and its accuracy - the diagnostics are simply not advanced enough to determine with 100% accuracy if the results are correct.

My sister chose to disclose her 2nd pregnancy only after having the quad screen (she will be 37 when she delivers) - I think she has a false sense of security that all is well when there's a large margin of error.

A former co-worker was told to expert her 3rd child (born when she was 37) to have Downs, and he was perfectly normal.

For me, I wanted not to add the extra stress anxiety and accepted the child as it was. My understanding as well (my kids are recently 2 and almost 4) is that the ultrasound would help detect many of those abnormalities.

2 moms found this helpful

Things may have changed since I was pregnant with my last three years ago, but at that time I asked if any of the test turned up positive was there anything they could do for the baby, and I was told no that the only reason for knowing would be to decide whether or not to terminate. Since termination was not an option for me, no matter what was wrong, I opted out with both my pregnancies. if things have changed, and the baby could be helped n utero, I would have it done. From my understanding though, they can identify spina bifida on an ultrasound (though, I could be wrong). I know two families also that had false positives for Downs.

Also, I WAS prepared for WHATEVER would happen. What good would months of stewing about it have done for me it nothing could be done for the baby in utero? I'm of the "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it" school of thought.

2 moms found this helpful

If you think these tests will give you peace of mind, then you should go for it. I had a different doctor with my son who is now 3 1/2 and he told me that women my age (39 at the time) never have good results, he recommended an amnio. He didn't push for the bloodwork; so I didn't do it; however, he pushed for the amnio and I finally asked why, he replied, "liability".

My family has other genetic issues; my brother was born with a genetic disorder and I will be honest, If knowing what I found out later during my pregnancy, I would have never had testing done. My doctor at the time and they do this when you're older, had me see his genetic counselor for testing. I ended up doing bloodwork to see if I was an unaffected carrier for my brother's disorder. He was born with Dysautonomia. This effects your autonomic system. He passed away at forty. Not because of this disorder but of something else; but having the disorder didn't help. You can have genetic testing at any time if there is a genetic issue in the family; however, when you're older, they have you do all sorts of bloodwork.

Out of curiousity, I wanted to find out if I was an unaffected carrier. They tested me for other disorders as well. I am Jewish and there is a ton of disorders. I asked my counselor what was up with my ancestors and she said it was because they intermarried or didn't marry out of their communities. Well, my husband isn't Jewish and so he didn't have any testing done. My bloodwork came out great except for the carrier gene for my brother's disorder. I was so upset, I couldn't breath and cried and cried. I had to go through this but I was upset with myself for having this test as I was already pregnant and I wasn't planning on terminating.

My brother was the best person that I knew and did so much with his life.

I thought if they had these tests when my mother was pregnant, he might not be here and that would be terrible. He lived a great life. This is the issue that I had to deal with and to deal with all the other testing just made me crazy; so, I didn't do an amnio which they could have tested my son to see if he had the disorder. I'm not big on testing so the carrier testing I did and I regret.

My son was born beautiful and healthy.

I have a different doctor now who delivered my daughter and out of curiousity, I did the bloodwork and the ultrasound testing. They did the nuchal fold testing. This is quite stressful when you are going through it but I wanted to see how all these tests came out and they came out perfect.

I was 42 when I did the bloodwork and the ultrasounds. It was out of curiousity. They still pushed for the anmio's but I refused. They, meaning my neonatalogist. My ob wanted me to do more genetic testing and I told him no and he left me alone.

Not sure if I would do testing again, if I chose to have more children I wish we could go back to having baby's at home without the stress of testing and hospital prisons. I have had two c-sections. The first one wasn't by choice the second one was by choice. I didn't want to do it but I believe it was best for my daughter. I do hope this helps.

My advice to you is to enjoy your pregnancy. Mazeltov!

1 mom found this helpful

I did the testing with my first because my OB told me to, I didn't even know I had a choice until after I had it done. Back then all they did was take your blood. Now I am pregnant with my second and as soon as they brought up the testing I said No because after researching last time I heard of a lot of stories of people being told their child would most likely have down syndrome and they were born without. I also heard of people being told everything was fine and their baby was born with down syndrome..I did end up getting it done this time for a selfish reason. They have changed the testing and now you get a finger poke and an ultrasound of the baby (actually 2 ultrasounds) I love ultrasounds because it reassures me that the baby is growing properly and still "there" especially so early on when miscarriage is still a fear. I just had this done 2 weeks ago and everything is "fine" even though I won't really know until the baby is born........

I have never heard of them being able to do surgery in utero. If that is true that is something to think about, otherwise I would say don't do it, unless you are addicted to ultrasounds like me! Good Luck!

1 mom found this helpful

I actually had a false negative. It's not as common as false positive, but it does happen. According to my quad screen, the chances of my baby having Down syndrome or another abnormality were 1 in 435. Low and behold, my daughter (now 3) was born with Down syndrome. She is truly a blessing! If I had known prior to giving birth, I would not have chosen to terminate. However, it might have been helpful to prepare mentally and financially, to educate myself and to get through much of the grieving prior to her birth. Still, things work out as they should. I have friends in the Down syndrome community who did find out while pregnant. Many of them have said that they were pressured by their physicians to terminate and the rest of their pregnancies were tough. I think that the decision you are facing now is really a personal choice. The question is, what would you do with the information. How would it affect the rest of your pregnancy, either way? Woulddyou go on for further testing? There is some testing that is more accurate than theewisd screen and is just as minimally invasive. It is the integrated screening. This includes bloodwork (just like with the quad) in both the first and second trimesters, combined with ultrasound at critical points. The nuchal translucency is an ultrasound that measures the thickness of skin on the back of the baby's neck. It must be done b/t 10 and 13 weeks. Perhaps these are options for you or perhaps you may decide to do nothing. Talk with your husband. Talk with your doctor. And if you are a Godly person, pray. you can't go wrong here. We have motherly instincts for a reason! Your children are so lucky to have you! Good luck, happy baby and congratulations!

1 mom found this helpful

In my pregnancies I had a strong premonition that my babies would be fine - healthy and well. I refused the test and my boys came out as perfect as you could wish for. If you are lacking such feelings, you should probably do the test.

1 mom found this helpful

I opted no. I work in the field and the many false positives I have seen cause a lot of heartache. I would not choose to do an amnio due to the risk of miscarriage. That leaves ultrasound and since I chose to have a 20 week ultrasound anyway, I essentially had the most advanced testing I would have had anyway.

1 mom found this helpful

I took the quad screen during both of my pregnancies, even knowing the high rate of false positives. When I was pregnant with my second child, the results indicated a increased probability of Down's (and was not considered high risk yet as I was under 35). I was in complete anguish for about 2 weeks- from the time I was given the results until being screened with a level 2 ultrasound. I did not feel like eating, I could not sleep. Perhaps not knowing was worse than just knowing. Upon level 2 ultrasound testing, there were no markers indicated for Down's and I decided to opt out of an amnio (at that point the probability of a miscarriage was higher than re-calculated probability of having a baby with Down's). I delivered a beautiful, healthy baby girl 11/2008, no problems. If you opted out the first time and felt comfortable with that decision, perhaps you could do the same again. If you have doubts and questions maybe you should do it the second time though.

1 mom found this helpful

I skipped all testing (I was 39 at the time) because they really couldn't guarantee accurate results so I didn't see the point in needless worry and stress or false hopefulness. make the right decision for you and your family. Good luck and God bless.

1 mom found this helpful

Hi L., I am currently pregnant with my second child. My first pregnancy was laden with problems and was very high risk. As a result I just said "yes" to everything the doctor offered in an effort do all I could for my baby. I did opt for the testing and I will not this time, I already know that. It was SO stressful last time and it seems no test was definitive. Every time we came back with a borderline result, so they just wanted to do another test and that test would always lead to another more invasive one. I stayed so stressed out that entire time and could not enjoy my pregnancy. So, it is my feeling now that unless you have a very good reason for believing that testing can help you or your baby, then opt out. By the way, I was told I may give birth to a Down's baby, or one with severe dwarfism, and all sorts of other things. None of that happened. She is perfectly normal.

1 mom found this helpful

I personally don't think anyone should have these tests. But then it's a personal decision. You sound like you do not want a baby if it has anything wrong with it. You need to consider that you can have a perfectly healthy baby and something happen after it is born or when it gets older. My neice has a son that is 16. She was told he would not live past ten days. He had his stomach on the outside of him and to this day he still does not talk. They said he would never walk but with the help of her boyfriend and the love of God he is walking. After he was born she said she did not want another child because of fear of them having problems. Not because she didn't want another problem child because she loves Jay the way he is. But because she didn't know how she would take care of two of them if they were like that as Jay is pretty much 24 hour care. She went on and had 3 healthy girls. I feel no matter what you do if God wants you to have a special child you will have it. I think too much testing goes on. My cousin lost her baby due to this same test you are considering. Be careful.

1 mom found this helpful

I did the test, and like many woman, had a false positive. The false positive rate on this test is insane, especially for older moms. I had an amnio and found out my son was just fine. I do not think it is a bad test, as long as you remeber taking it that 3 of every 4 positives is a false, and to not get alarmed until after further testing is done.

I had it with all 4. I wanted to be prepared if anything were to happen. Things that come up during the test can be fixed with surgery. In the town I had my first 3, there was a hospital with a surgeon on call and at the other hospital there was a surgeon on staff, always there. If there were a problem that I knew of before hand and chose which hospital to deliver at according. To me it was being prepared and taking every precaution I could to have a healthy baby!

I chose to have the test for all 3 of my pregnancies. Do they have "false" positives? sure, sometimes - though it isn't a positive or negative reading, it is a numbers result, with the numbers meaning your chances of the baby having "x y or z" are an increased or decreased percentage. I chose to have it done because if anything was wrong I would want to be prepared, I would want to be at the best hospital with the best doctors and a good support system already in place. I could not imagine having a baby, believing everything was fine then dealing with the shock of learning there was something wrong and I could have done things to prepare myself and my family and the baby. Having a newborn is an emotional rollercoaster as it is, trying to rush around and deal with an issue you could have prepared for is unnecessary when you could already know in advance. I could deal with the stress of a high reading for a bit before a more accurate test was done if it meant being prepared.

Ultimately, of course it is between you, your husband and OB. Good luck with your decision.

It all depends on what you will do with the knowledge. I had a prescreening during my pregnancy that included blood work and the NT ultrasound. It came back saying that our child had a 1 in 13 chance of having Downs ( I was already high risk because of my age... 41... at the time). It was too late for me to do anything else except an amnio, so I had to wait another 5 weeks for the level 2 ultrasound and amnio to be done. It was the most emotional, stressful time of my life. We had been trying to have a baby for over a year, and knew we didn't have a lot of time. Fortunately, we now have a healthy 2 & 1/2 year.

I am the type of person who wanted to know. If I were to do it all over again, I would have just had the CVS and not gone through all of the prescreens. Yes, I know it's a risk, but if you go to an experienced perinatal doctor, like I did for the amnio, the risk is minimal. They do these procedures all the time. The CVS (chorionic villus sampling) can be done early and it gives conclusive results like an amnio. I just would want to be prepared, but not everyone is like that.

Good luck.

I chose not to do it because I know too many people that got false positive results on it. It wasn't worth the worry to me!

You need to ask yourself this important question: Are you the kind of person that likes to be prepared? If so, then have the test. Yes, you can get false positives. They happen but there are other tests to take in the event of a false positive. Some women would consider terminating a pregnancy when they find out something is wrong with the baby. I hope you are not one of those women. God won't give you more than you can handle. The tests are available so you can be prepared.

The most important thing with the screening is the time frame. If you test too early you get lots of false positives. I think it's right around 18 weeks when they should test.

The biggest reason I chose to test was just as Donita said-it's invaluable to be prepared! If surgery is needed, if the baby had Down's, whatever goodness forbid. These are all things you need and want to be prepared for along with the doctors. They can have a plan for baby before they even get here.

If further testing is needed it doesn't necessarily have to be invasive. There is so much they can see with ultrasound that they can get a conclusive diagnosis that way.

I got the test done with both of mine. Just like you, I would continue the pregnancy and love my child regardless, but if something was wrong with it, I would want to know as soon as possible so that I could research whatever it was, and be educated on is so that I could give it the best care possible.