Hi,

When my MW was here on Wednesday, she briefly touched upon Nuchal (sp?) scans. She said these were done privately? Are they instead of the needle test for downs? I was a little confused and should've asked more questions?

Thanks!

Ika x

The nuchal scan measures the fluid behind the neck through an ultrasound. There is a certain measurement that they like it to be under (3mm I think). I believe most will also do blood work and compile the results into a "chances" sort of result. Average chances are say, 1 in 250 meaning 1 in every 250 will show a high indication of down syndrome. Your results could come in at 1 in 5000, meaning that you have a 1 in 5000 chance that the baby has down syndrome. If you have a high risk, they will offer an amnio or cvs that will take cells from the baby directly (placenta and fluid) and test it for a 100% accurate result. They do all this between 12 and 13 weeks 6 days, so you've got time still if you choose to do it.

It's really all over the map if you want to. Some women don't like it because the numbers can just scare you, but for me, I needed some reassurance that things were good. Our numbers came in at 1 in 9000, which is good. The test also is for Trisomy 13 and Trisomy 18, and down syndrome. The 13 and 18 are more rare but are detrimental.

If you are interested, I'd call back and ask some more questions. Most of my friends have not done the test, it usually isn't offered her until you are around 32 years old or older. Personally, we wanted to know as much info as possible. The thing is, if there is an issue, it will show up at some point. Not finding out now won't change the results, if that makes sense. But chances are very extremely good that your baby is healthy, happy and wonderful.

Some areas combine the nuchal fold test with the blood test to give a more accurate test result, but in most areas they are kept separate, in which case if you are having the nuchal fold test - the blood test is largely irrelevent because the nuchal fold test is more accurate (though still not 100%)