Maternal Serum Screening

Hi All. I know this is a very personal subject but I need some advice. I've been offered the Maternal Serum Screening test. I'm 22 and have no family/genetic history of neural tube defects and/or genetic abnormalities. My OB/GYN said she has no reason to believe anything is wrong- no physical evidence via ultrasound. I've lost past pregnancies due to my career in the laboratory working with biohazards and radiation. I'm currently 16 weeks pregnant and am really contemplating getting the testing done. Maybe I'm scared of the results, though I don't have a bad "gut" feeling.Any information would be helpful and very much appreciated. Thanks. -M

This can be a tough decision to make...my husband and I have decided against all the screening, except for Cystic Fibrosis. We decided that no matter what, we would keep the baby, so we will just wait and see. Plus, false positives happen a lot and I don't want a ton of stress over nothing!!
Good luck with your decision!!

Quoting Momma&MarineWife:“ This can be a tough decision to make...my husband and I have decided against all the screening, except ... [snip!] ... and see. Plus, false positives happen a lot and I don't want a ton of stress over nothing!! Good luck with your decision!!”

Thank you for your advice. I'm so happy at this stage of pregnancy, I wouldn't want to be burdened with having to make a huge decision at 4 months....just seems crazy.

I did it only because all they needed was blood from me so I said why not. My family doesn't have a history of any genetic disease either and I was going to keep my little girl regardless. I figured if there's something wrong, I'd rather know now. Now, if they needed to do chronic villi sampling or amniocentisis, I would have said no big time.

Quoting -:-Marina-:-:“ Thank you for your advice. I'm so happy at this stage of pregnancy, I wouldn't want to be burdened with having to make a huge decision at 4 months....just seems crazy.”

That's how I felt and I knew for sure that there is no way I would have done an amnio, so what's the point!? I'd still have to wait until I had the baby to know for sure if the higher level U/S was indeterminate!

I've heard that there are false positives a lot. I actually worked with a gentleman who had a positive result and he & his wife decided to keep the child regardless. When the child arrived, she was a perfect baby. It's not a mistake to be made. I mean, a blood test is harmless but I'm just concerned if they find something, they'll want to do an amniocentesissothe fluid can then be sent for evaluation of fetal lung maturity, genetic evaluation, evidence of spina bifida, the presence of infection, or chromosome analysis. I don't even know if I want to stress about it.

Quoting -:-Marina-:-:“ I've heard that there are false positives a lot. I actually worked with a gentleman who had a positive ... [snip!] ... evidence of spina bifida, the presence of infection, or chromosome analysis. I don't even know if I want to stress about it.”

I heard there were lots of falst positives but mine came out negative. If you do get a positive, you have the choice of turning down amnio. Most of the time, if you don't have a family history, they won't recommend you do an amnio, they'll just give you that option.

Thank you for all your advice and support. We've decided not to do the serum screening but instead have a specialist from San Francisco (50 miles away) do an ultrasound which checks for birth defects and down syndrome by measuring the thickness of the neck  

Just so you know, u/s only picks up about 50% of babies with Down Syndrome. As long as you're ok with that, then just having the u/s is fine.

UPDATE: Okay, so I made an appointment through UCSF to get my fetal survey done. We have 2 very minor birth defects in the family (none of which are disfiguring or life threatening.) I'm automatically directed to a genetic counselor to speak about the possibilites of my child having Down Syndrome and Tay Sachs. I'm 22 years old and my husband & I have no chromosomal problems inour genetic history. The way they made me feel was ridiculous. As if it's not already a nerve wracking experience, they literally told me "if something is wrong, you'd have to terminate." Since when did making decisions for myself cease? I was steamin' mad. I called my primary care physician and after searching through my blood tests he said everything was fine. Gosh, nothing like freaking people out when there is nothing to worry about. Then, to make it worse, my OB has been pressuring me to get that AFP test. When my OB heard that I cancelled she said, "Shame on you." Then, she said, "I'll have you get a scan at 20 weeks to check your dates and maybe you can see the gender." How about checking my dates before you tell someone to get an AFP test. There is a bracket in which you must get that test done- so why not reassure your patient that their dates are on track before you send them for the test? Failure to have correct dates could cause a false positive. I'm not trying to complain or get sympathy- I'm just warning people about what's out there.