Hope for those going through positive Quad screen results

[newmom77]

Hello,
I started a discussion board here a few weeks ago asking for some words of hope from anyone that had gone though the experience of receiving a positive quad screen result. I just turned 35 and was given a 1/46 chance of having a baby with Downs when the average for my age was around 1/250. I was devastated by the news, even though my husband and I would have loved the baby no matter what, it's very scary to think that your baby can be born with any kind of health issues or abnormalities. After finding out, I began scouring through message boards all over the web looking for some clarity, I had absolutely no idea about the rate of false positives this test can give. Other women's stories really gave me comfort and I swore that I would share my story when all was said and done.

After receiving the results I was advised to meet with a genetic counselor who didn't do the best job of calming me down but did suggest the Maternit21 test as a next step and explained that in reality my results meant that I had a 98% change of having a healthy baby, felt a little better but I kept thinking I was going to be the "1". I decided to take the Maternit21 because the test sounded very accurate and I was hoping to avoid amnio at all cost. 2 grueling weeks later I still hadn't heard anything so I followed up with the genetic counselor who informed me that everything came back perfectly normal. As happy as I was to hear that our baby was going to be born without any neural tube defects, it really sunk in how absolutely stressed and scared I had been for over 2 weeks - which is definitely not great for pregnancy. I was really kicking myself for not doing the Maternit21 from the get go and kind of mad that this quad test even exists when it puts so many women through this for no reason what so ever.

My advice to anyone going through the same thing is to stay positive, know that more than likely everything is wonderful with your baby, talk to the women in your family and your girlfriends, I bet there is someone that went through a similar situation that can make you feel better, it definitely helped me. Hang in there! For those of you that are thinking of taking the quad test, I HIGHLY recommend you go straight to Maternit21 if your insurance will cover some of it and your Dr. provides it, it is still fairly new. Thanks to anyone who left me kind thoughts when I was going through all of this and please feel free to contact me if you need someone to talk to.

 

[Havmercy]

I'm not sure what a Quad test is, but I had a nuchal scan with our first son. The results were 1/16 of having Down's syndrone. Needless to say I was devasted. I was 12 weeks and had to wait until I was at least 16 weeks for amore accurate amnio. Just like you, my amnio came back normal. That was a long 2 weeks waiting with unncessary stress. This time we will go straight to the amnio, and forget the nuchal scan. I will have to research the Maternit21, i've never heard of it.

 

[FeistyMom]

Last pregnancy the quad shows an elevated risk for the nastiest trisomy defect (forget which one). I was devastated - we scheduled an amnio, but when the doctor did the preliminary ultrasound, he said that the baby looked so normal, that it was nearly impossible for the baby to have developed so well with that particular defect and told me I could opt out of the amnio, which we did. Baby boy was totally healthy! Also had a friend who had a bad result from NT - her OB told her zero chance she'd even go to term, and to prepare for a mc any moment. She changed practitioners, and had a pretty uneventful pregnancy and labor and birth to a totally healthy little boy.

The Maternit21 isn't necessarily available to everyone yet, and I don't think all insurances cover it at this point. Similar with the Harmony test, which is also more accurate at weeding out false positives, as it extracts baby's dna from our blood test. I went with the new integrated scan, that is like the quad screen, but does an initial blood draw in first tri, a VERY detailed ultrasound that includes NT, and then a second blood draw at the normal time for the quad screen, and compares those results and looks for trends to determine risk factor.

If we end up high risk, I'm going to do Harmony even though insurance doesn't cover it. I might ask about Maternit21 though!

 

[Whitesoxfan41]

I'm 42 and my doc ordered the Materni21 and the AFP part of the quad screen for me on Monday. Hopefully by this time next week we'll have results. She didn't do the nuchal scan, I'll have a regular 20 week scan though.