In the hands of nature

[athene]

Went in to the Birthing Center last Friday to get the 12-13 week Fetal Nuchal translucency test. This is the one where they look at the fetus to see if it possibly has Downs Syndrome and take a blood sample also. Little Stree, wouldn't cooperate. So I went back yesterday. Guess who wasn't cooperating again. Did get some really adorable u/s pictures (including a Kermit the Frog looking one). But because of that, they also didn't take my blood (a blessing?).

These were the options they gave me: I could call the ultrasound place that the Birthing Center I'm going to works with and pray they can get me in sometime around my schedule in the next two days, I could schedule the screening blood test at 15-20 weeks (but it has a high rate of false positives), or we could just let nature run its course. When I got home, I talked about the different options with lordaerith and, we decided on the last option. We figured that this was the Universe's and the baby's way of telling us to chill out and not worry about it. I'm 31, so the risk is not that high and I'd rather not take a test that could cause lots of stress and turn out not to be true anyway.

And now, fetus Stree as Kermit the Frog:


Why yes, I'm embarrassing my offspring before it is even born. :)

Comments

[wenchalicious.livejournal.com]

That picture is all win.

<3

[anagramofbrat.livejournal.com]

LOL@ultrasound.

[eliset.livejournal.com]

I guess the real question is - if Stree did have Down's syndrome or another chromosomal abnormality, would you continue the pregnancy, or would there be anything you could do to lessen the effects?

If the answer is that yes you'd continue it and no you couldn't lessen the effects, then it doesn't seem to me that "knowing" or not in advance matters much.

[athene.livejournal.com]

I would. I know that Aerith has more issues surrounding that than I do. But he was the one who suggested that at this point we might as well just not do the test.

[acadecian.livejournal.com]

It's your sworn duty as a parent to embarrass your children, even while still in the womb!

With Zoe I opted to have the blood tests done (the quad screening) but hubz and I both agreed that we wouldn't do anything drastic if the results were bad. My reasoning was basically so we would have time to prepare if Zoe was going to have some sort of issues.

My biggest hurdle right now is WAITING TO TAKE THE DAMN PREGNANCY TEST. ugh. I'm trying desperately not to read too much into all the symptoms I'm having right now. I'm 99% certain I am preggers though, considering I was on the pill when I got pregnant with Zoe. go go super fertility!

[made-of-paradox.livejournal.com]

I'd want to know so that I could have a little time to figure out what the kid might need sometime before months and months of weird sleep schedules made it difficult to think straight. But, that's the only reason, and having that luxury of knowledge before birth is fairly new, and plenty of people coped without it before now.

If someone had informed me I was likely carrying a baby with Down's, I'd have started asking around about resources before delivery. I did all the various recommended blood draws, but never had an ultrasound before 20w. (It was unnerving to find out in an US at 21w that I had 2 babies in there, and that totally changed the game, including lots and lots of extra ultrasounds to make sure no one was interfering with a wombmate too badly, and also to get a better idea as to how each one was positioned, in order to determine if a C-section would be necessary or not. It wasn't.)

And, none of my kids have any of those things they do prenatal screening for, and I was older than athene with the first one, so anything whose odds increase with age, I wouldn't worry about so much for her.