Prenatal Downs Syndrome Testing: Have you or would you have it done?

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krissy343

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Mind you, I have no children, but my DH and I are trying to conceive. I find this test to be horrible! Women are using this test to find out if they are going to have a “normal” child. In most cases, if they find out the child does in fact have Downs, they terminate the pregnancy! What are they going to come up with next? A test that charts a baby’s potential IQ while in the womb?

Sorry to rant, but I think the test has done more harm than good.
 
We’ve never tested for any of our 5 children. Mostly because my wife is in a risk group for Tay-Sach,
There really isn’t much of a point since there is no treatment.

Sure, we’ve been told, that if the child had Downs or Tay-Sachs, it might help us prepare better for the child. But an amnio also carries risk for the child ( abielt small).

But really, how valuable can a few months of additional knowledge compared to putting the child’s life at risk.
 
We tested. We never considered or would have considered “terminating” a pregnancy. (you should really not use euphamisms for something like this - it’s abortion)

You are overgeneralizing to call the test itself “horrible”. While some people might use it for selfish reasons, this is not the fault of the test, only the parents who have that mindset.

I had some other genetic tendancies that might have required special neonatal care. It was important to know before the birth, if possible, in order to have the baby at a hospital with the right facilities. The down’s testing was just part of the overall screening process.
 
Corki said:
We tested. We never considered or would have considered “terminating” a pregnancy. (you should really not use euphamisms for something like this - it’s abortion)

You are overgeneralizing to call the test itself “horrible”. While some people might use it for selfish reasons, this is not the fault of the test, only the parents who have that mindset.

I had some other genetic tendancies that might have required special neonatal care. It was important to know before the birth, if possible, in order to have the baby at a hospital with the right facilities. The down’s testing was just part of the overall screening process.
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In my opinion, you are right on the money. There is nothing inherently evil about the test, but as with any medical procedure, the benefit should outweigh the potential harm and cost.

If it is used as an excuse to abort, then no good comes of it. If it used to help the parents prepare in the event of special needs child, then most likely the good is greater than the currently understood risk. Obviously, if greater risk was discovered, the balance might tip the other direction.

I hope that people will be charitable and give parents the benefit of the doubt when it comes to issues that are not black and white. I find it very hurtful when blanket statements are made about things like genetic testing, breastfeeding, and the such. Unless a person knows extremely well another’s circumstance and heart, it seems better to me to err on the side of good intent.

Paul
 
Corki said:
We tested. We never considered or would have considered “terminating” a pregnancy. (you should really not use euphamisms for something like this - it’s abortion)

You are overgeneralizing to call the test itself “horrible”. While some people might use it for selfish reasons, this is not the fault of the test, only the parents who have that mindset.

I had some other genetic tendancies that might have required special neonatal care. It was important to know before the birth, if possible, in order to have the baby at a hospital with the right facilities. The down’s testing was just part of the overall screening process.
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I’m sorry if you don’t agree with my use of “euphamisms” abortion is terminating the pregnancy, there is absolutely no difference imho.

I was also not intending to offend anyone. In your experience or anyone else that was in a situation like yours, it is totally understandable to do anything necessary (other than abortion) to protect yourself and your child. Sadly, the majority of women are getting tested for selfish reasons, that’s what I was refering to
 
krissy343 said:
Mind you, I have no children, but my DH and I are trying to conceive. I find this test to be horrible! Women are using this test to find out if they are going to have a “normal” child. In most cases, if they find out the child does in fact have Downs, they terminate the pregnancy! What are they going to come up with next? A test that charts a baby’s potential IQ while in the womb?

Sorry to rant, but I think the test has done more harm than good.
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I never had my children tested 20-something years ago. Still today I wouldn’t. I understand there are a number of tests that can be done. My first gut reaction was disgust. My OBGYN (nonabortion) said that by law he had to offer it.
Don’t be sorry about the rant. These things need to be spoken.
 
T700 said:
I hope that people will be charitable and give parents the benefit of the doubt when it comes to issues that are not black and white. I find it very hurtful when blanket statements are made about things like genetic testing, breastfeeding, and the such. Unless a person knows extremely well another’s circumstance and heart, it seems better to me to err on the side of good intent.

Paul
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My post was not intended to be uncharitable. My apologies once again if I offended anyone.
Like I said above, I was speaking of the women who have it done for selfish reasons. I can’t find the original website that sparked my interest on this subject. It had statistics of how many babies are aborted after the mothers found out the test’s came back positve. It was at least 80% if not higher, and I’m thinking it was closer to 90%. That was what I was addressing. And honestly, I wouldn’t want to know so I could “prepare” for having a special needs child. What kind of REAL preparation can you do anyway? I think it would just cause a ton of unnecessary stress during the pregnancy. Again, this is in my own honest opinion.
 
I had my children in my mid twenties so I wasn’t classified as being in a high risk category to warrant such testing. I work in the disability field and I have yet to find someone, even though I have come across some pretty serious disabilities, who didn’t have a quality of life.

I told the doctor from the start I would have the usual ultra sounds but abortion was not an option at any stage.

There have been a number of cases of women being told that the baby they carry in their womb has a disability but when the child was born it was perfectly ok. There was even a TV segment on it earlier this year about how some of these tests are coming up as false and also how some of these tests were in fact causing women to spontaneously abort and that the risk of miscarriage from testing was a higher risk then the risk of finding something wrong with the baby. That was something many of the women on this TV segment said they weren’t fully informed of, they were not informed of the risk of miscarriage from testing. So apart from the fact I think abortion is horrendous, and I wouldn’t have an abortion, I would not even have the test, as I don’t believe the risk of having testing is worth it due to the risk of false positives and miscarriage.
 
When my daughter showed signs of a soft genetic marker for Down’s Syndrome, she was sent to a genetic counselor. The first option they stated that was available, before even stating what any of the odds and such were, was that abortion was a possibility and that we coul “take care of it today.” When they stated that their facility experienced a 1 in 250 likelihood of a spontaneous miscarriage, my daughter opted out of the amnio test. The counselor was furious that we were not electing to “know for sure” when the test was available. Frankly, 1 in 250 odds is not very good if you are interested in NOT having an abortion. The direction if the amnio is done is that the mother go home and lie down for 24-48 hours. If it carries “no risk” (a quote from the counselor), then why do you have to go to bedrest for 2 days? I am not taking to task those mothers who choose amnio. It certainly is not their intent to hurt their babies. The frustration with knowing that there MIGHT be something wrong, is not always relieved with a certainty of knowing that nothing (or Something) is actually wrong. She is now in her eighth month and we are prayerful in trusting in God’s will for this baby. We are prepard for the best, but a child born with Down’;s is certainly not the worst that one could hope for or expect.

These are hard choices and it takes a lot of faith to trust in God’s will, especially when His ways are so far above us. We know that He wants what is best for all of us and trusting in Him is how we should live our lives, even when the prospects are not what we might desire.
 
I’m actually wrestling with all this right now. I’m expecting my ninth baby in April, but this is my first 35+ pregnancy, so there are more tests offered as the risk is statistically somewhat higher.

I’ve always declined in the past, since I saw no point in testing for something that couldn’t be corrected, and of course, abortion wasn’t even a question.

This time, though, I think I will do the blood work and nuchal ultrasound that looks for Downs. My thinking is that if the baby does have Downs, there is a substantially higher chance of certain serious problems with the heart. I would want to know that ahead of time, as it might have some bearing on the delivery, and it would be a bit too stressful for me to find out right after birth that my baby needed a heart operation. Yikes! Having a little time for it to sink in would be really helpful for me.

Amnio is out of the question-- the risk is of m/c is small but I just won’t take it. But this time around I think I will go through with the non-invasive tests. I actually already have a special needs child, but not Downs, so I would also want to get informed sooner rather than later, so I can get ready to go into “advocate” mode and get the best services and therapies lined up that I could.

I do find it monstrous, however, that so many of the Downs babies are aborted. It’s just appalling. I have to wonder if part of parents’ fear of the condition comes from not knowing anybody else dealing with it, which then feeds the phenomenon-- more abortions means being exposed to fewer and fewer Downs kids in everyday life. I have two friends whose children have it, and frankly, the world would be a poorer, sadder place without them.

Margaret
 
My spouse and I were offered the test 4 times…and we turned it down each time. Parents with special needs children are indeed special themselves. May God give them the strength and courage in the years ahead.
 
Yes, had it done for TwoSweetGirls. . . for the sole fact of being better prepared when they were born, and not for killing them if I didn’t like it.

Abortion–“terminating”, “ending”, whatever euphemistic crud one can call it–is murder. And anyone who supports it is a murderer, or at best an accomplice to murder. End of discussion.
 
Using amnio to screen for Down’s doesn’t make sense just on the numbers. Women in the 35+ cohort have a 1:1,800 chance of having a Down’s baby. But amnio increases their risk of miscarriage to 1:200-300.

Add to this that amnio is far from foolproof, there are false positives as well as false negatives.

Here is a great article by George F. Will about amnio, abortion and his son, Jon, who has Down’s.
 
I did not have the option of testing, but would have taken it if I had; not the amnio though. Having a special child necessitates adjustments and sometimes special preparations; foreknowledge might help one to be better prepared. Just my thoughts…
 
I would but only to know that if there was a risk (and the tests can be inaccurate) and to prepare myself for the possibility of having a child with Down’s so that I could educate myself.

These tests in and of themselves are not evil. Sadly, it’s used to get people to abort their less than “perfect” children.

Poor babies:(
 
We’ve had testing done with all three pregnancies (not the amnio, though) due to my wife’s age (39 when we had our first). Of course we would love, accept and cherish our baby regardless of their health – -we simply wanted to know what to expect so that we could prepare.
 
I had amino done with my last child because I fell into what was considered a “high-risk” category. But if I had to do it over again, I would opt for the AFP genetic testing (blood work only) instead. These are the two options we are given in California.
 
sanctamaria17 said:
I would but only to know that if there was a risk (and the tests can be inaccurate) and to prepare myself for the possibility of having a child with Down’s so that I could educate myself.

These tests in and of themselves are not evil. Sadly, it’s used to get people to abort their less than “perfect” children.

Poor babies:(
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I agree with you here.
 
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