Goodbye First Trimester, Hello Nuchal
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I’m 13 weeks now and relieved to put the first trimester behind me. Thankfully, my morning sickness dissolved just in time for me to attend the Smart Marriages conference, which I wrote about last week.
So what’s the next big thing in the pregnancy journey? The “Nuchal Translucency“, also referred to as the “First Trimester Screen” or “Early Risk Assessment”. It’s a non-invasive ultrasound and blood test designed to “help your healthcare practitioner assess your baby’s risk of having Down syndrome (DS) and some other chromosomal abnormalities as well as major congenital heart problems,” says Babycenter.com. I’m excited for it because of the hi-resolution ultrasound (and the chance that I could find out the baby’s sex). Then again, it could give way to more worries.
Disclosure Note: NTD Labs is a provider of first trimester screening.
Both NTD Labs and ViaCord (our blog sponsor) are part of the PerkinElmer family. Although I have to admit, I didn’t know this before I started writing this post.
My friend’s nuchal results indicated that her child’s DS risk was higher than average based on the mother’s age during pregnancy. What does that mean? Basically, it means that she might benefit from an amnio. Yikes, now how does she make that decision? I don’t know if doctors realize this, but as soon as you tell a mother that her risk is “higher than normal” all she will do is think, eat, dream and talk about DS. After a week of self-torture my friend decided that she had to get an amnio or she’d spend the next 6 months going insane. During her week-long decision process, my friend also had to fend off her mother-in-law who insisted that the amnio was dangerous and unnecessary. She had her husband tell her “their” decision to have an amnio.
Of course, not everyone has the amnio after the nuchal results. Jaime, who writes the Blond Mom Blog, wrote about why she decided not to have an amnio after receiving disappointing nuchal results. For some, the nuchal is controversial because it can only indicate risks, it can’t give us yes/no results. An increased risk leads to more tough choices, amnio, cvs, and of course, the ultimate choice that most of us don’t even want to think about – what if we find out our child has DS or another chromosomal abnormality? No matter how prepared I like to be, that’s a conversation my husband and I will gladly avoid unless necessary.
How about you? Were you excited or nervous for the Nuchal? Did you have an amnio? How did you and your partner decide on this?
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Health & Wellness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.
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