# Amniocentesis on pregnancy over 40



## babymama72

Ok.. my dr brought up the issue of Chromosomal abnormalities in babies to women over 40.. She suggested doing an amniocentesis to test.. Anyone have any experience with this? Or know the exact percentage rate of down syndrome children to women over 40?:cry:


----------



## mtnprotracy

First....congratulations on your pregnancy! I'm Tracy....41 and expecting our 4th son via planned c-section one month from today!!!!

Although the risks get higher the older you get, many, many women have very healthy babies at 40 and beyond. The decision to have an amnio is totally your decision. Some women chose to have one, others don't. You will be offered other scans/tests as your pregnancy progresses. We opted to do the nuchal translucency test (it only involves an ultrasound and blood work) between 11 and 13 weeks. Once the test was completed we were given odds for Downs and other chromosomal abnormalities. At that point, we opted for no more tests. Again, all testing is totally your decision. 

Best wishes for a happy and healthy 9 months!!!


----------



## Nrs2772

My doctor did some blood work to check for DS etc, my blood work came back negative so she did not pursue the amnio. I did have an amnio @37 weeks to check lung maturity, but I am more than sure I would have refused one early on.


----------



## newaddition

babymama72 said:


> Ok.. my dr brought up the issue of Chromosomal abnormalities in babies to women over 40.. She suggested doing an amniocentesis to test.. Anyone have any experience with this? Or know the exact percentage rate of down syndrome children to women over 40?:cry:

I stressed myself over the Amnio decision, I had every other non invasive test available and in the end declined the Amnio based on those results. My issue was the risk of miscarrying. It has to be totally a personal choice, best of luck. I still worry but there are so many other things that can go wrong that Amnio won't tell you so I felt I had to leave our outcome to fate.


----------



## SabrinaKat

Hi,

Like the ladies above, I am post-40 lady (43 when conceived/44 when LO arrived) and had always said I would have an amnio -- but after my 12wk bloods/Nuchal flood test, my risk at 44 (age at delivery) raised from 1/40 to 1/162 and we decided not to do an amnio as the rate of mc was/can be high -- after my 20wk scan, my risk went to 1/300 and Finn was born absolutely healthy (altho I had PE)....

I would say that I would keep an open mind -- do the bloods/nuchal fold test FIRST and then, decide, based on those results whether to do an amnio, e.g. if you get a 1/5 possibility, then do the amnio; it gets a bit harder when it's like ours was, e.g. 1/162 and the risk of mc from amnio can be 1/200. I did agonise in the last weeks of the pregnancy about whether I had done the right thing by not doing the amnio, but I had had NO indications that anything necessitated an amnio, e.g. blood work, a worry on a scan, and think it was just worry about everything pregnancy and baby related, if that makes sense. 

hope that helps? best wishes!


----------



## happymama72

Hello! I am going through some blood tests and I'm curious about what your Dr. said regarding Down syn. I know for a fact that there is no blood test that can tell you if you are pos or neg for Down. That can only be done via amnio. Did your blood results give you an extremely low probability? Is that why your Dr. advised against an amnio? I know you are due in a day or 2...best wishes!!!


----------



## lockzie

My NT scan + bloods gave me a 1:110 of the baby having DS.
I chose to have an amnio and within 4 hours my membranen ruptures. The outlook was very grim and doctors talked about how to end my pregnancy. My consultant, on the other hand, put me on anti-biotics and complete bedrest. I had scans 4 days after, showing I had lost all my fluid, but a scan 2 weeks later showed I had resealed and replenished the fluid around my baby.

I would think carefully about invasive testing, I wished I had looked at all other options. It is very much a personal choice

I was one of the lucky ones, at the time it didnt seem like it

Here is a very useful forum on amnio's: https://community.babycenter.com/groups/a2895185/amniocentesis_support_information_group

Hope this helps xx


----------



## Nrs2772

happymama72 said:


> Hello! I am going through some blood tests and I'm curious about what your Dr. said regarding Down syn. I know for a fact that there is no blood test that can tell you if you are pos or neg for Down. That can only be done via amnio. Did your blood results give you an extremely low probability? Is that why your Dr. advised against an amnio? I know you are due in a day or 2...best wishes!!!


All the doctor told me was that it was negative, a chance of like 1/3000 after my blood work. There was no talk after that for Amnio until my 37 week appointment to check lung maturity. The only reason I did it then was because if there was an issue with the amnio they can take the baby right then and she would more than likely survive. Having one early on has a greater risk of miscarriage. I was induced two weeks ago and had a 7 pound 15 ounce healthy baby girl :)


----------



## Havmercy

I was told women in my age group, I'm 38, have a 1:120 chance of downs. After that dreadful nuchal with bloods test, I dropped to 1:16. We had the amnio and the results were normal. I had no complications from the amnio at all. It was painless and quick. If we decide to have another baby, i will skip the bloods test and go straight to the amnio. The nuchal with bloods test has a very high rate of false positive.


----------



## madmae

I am 38 and after my NT scan and bloods we were told our chances of DS were 1:5. We opted for the amnio rather than CVS. I ended up having 2 as the lab buggered up the first test. On the 2nd one they decided to take 2 samples and from one of the stick sites I got an infection which was horrendously painful.....but a week later we got told our little man was fine. It can and does sometimes have complications but if I were in the same situation again I would still have it done as I couldn't have gone 20+ weeks worrying. We wouldn't have aborted but the weeks between getting the NT and blood results and having the amnios were hell....I couldn't have gone the rest of the pregnancy not knowing.


----------



## Littlepaws

Hi, I do have a son with DS, I adore him and would not change him for the world, but my only advice would be only have the invasive test if you are sure what you will do with the result. At the end of the day it is personal choice, I am pg again at 37 with my 3rd, ( my little girl is perfectly fine ), and I am opting to have a cvs test. Good luck with your decision xx


----------

