Downs Syndrome Odds Given Stole My Peace of Mind

I would not look at having an amnio and any other testing as not believing that "this baby is perfectly fine" or as something that would change the outcome of the pregnancy. It simply provides you with information that you can use to create the most loving, conducive, supportive environment for your baby. If you ask me all babies are "fine." Some may have different challenges but God guides us and uses our children to grow us into the believers that he wants us to be.

I really do wish you the very best,
C.

K.,

I agree that you should first talk to the doctor before you make a drastic change so far along in your pregnancy. It sounds like you got the routine quad screen. It may be something that they do with every pregnancy and your wishes could had been overlooked. I know that's no excuse, but it doesn't sound like you were "tricked"

As far as your Down's chances, the quad screen is just that, a screening. It also has a huge margin of error, part of it b/c the results depend on how far along you are and just a few weeks can make a HUGE difference in the outcome. They told us that my 1st son had a 1/49 chance for Down's. We went ahead and had the amnio mostly b/c we wanted to be prepared (and prepare our families) if we had a special needs child. I also knew that I would worry about it for the next 4-5 months and felt that the stress it would cause me and our baby would be more damaging than the amnio. Our son was just fine with no Down's, as are most children who's quad comes up as a "high" risk.

Good luck to you!! Try not to worry!!

First of all, God bless you and your little one.

I don't think your doctor meant anything negative, she's looking out for your best interest, you should let her know how you feel like a lot of the other mother's have said. Now, you also have to look at her point of view, she needs to have as much information as possible when delivering a baby. Just because you are consider high risk, just means they are keeping an extra eye on you. There is nothing wrong with that, you already know, that no matter what you are keeping your baby. I believe with you, that everything is fine with your baby. Your doctor does care about you, and a lot of those blood test tell more than one thing, they probably were just testing for one thing in particular but something else showed up. If she was just giving you an ultrasound and something showed up on it, that she wasn't looking for to begin with, you wouldn't be upset, you would want to know. I think the worse thing about being pregnant is wondering if everything is going right inside of you, then 9 months later, you finally get to see.

I really think she has your best interest at heart.

God bless you, your family and your little one inside!

I agree with the other poster that you should talk to your Doctor about how you are feeling. Unless your Doctor is pressuring you to take action that you are against, then finding out if the baby will have any problems at birth is not necessarily negative. If it is determined that the baby needs special care during the birth or right after it may affect which hospital your Doctor recommends. Regardless of the test results the baby will be in the health that it will be, the only difference is whether you find out now or at birth. Will be keeping your family and new baby in my thoughts.

I don't think I would switch Dr's over it if I had a good relationship and long history with the Dr....but I would let the Dr know my feelings.

Sometimes when testing is done, it does feel like the lab tech, nurse, or whomever has no bedside manner.

I'm sorry you were made to feel this way. It is not fun to go through pregnancy with fear. My Ex Dr. called me on a SATURDAY holiday to tell me that some cancer came back when I was 5-6 months pregnant and "there is nothing we can do right now". I felt like she did this when she got the report just to get the news off her mind and go on with her holiday weekend. Of course, it ruined my weekend and rest of pregnancy due to un-necessary worry. In the end everything was and is ok but the stress level was extremely high. Yes, I did change Dr's shortly after this news. I had already had some negative vibes about this Dr and the way she handled this just made the decision for me.

Thinking of you....best wishes.

I would change Dr.'s just because you had already made your wishes clear and they ignored them, that's jmo. Also, please know that many many many of those tests are false positives when it comes to down syndrome AND don't let it worry you because you already said,"it doesn't matter anyway." The Lord is going to give you the child that He has created just for you! HTH

What a nice response from Christine. I have always had the attitude that I do not want to know because it woudn't change my decision to keep the baby. But she is right that you need to have whatever tests are recommended and just look at the results as information that can help you and your baby, not whether or not you should consider an abortion. I am sure that everything will be fine. You are still very young. Just take extra good care of yourself. Good luck to you and your baby.