My CNM said that the screening is up to us if we want it or not, she does not make a recommendation either way.
The practice suggests calling your insurance company to make sure it's covered before scheduling so you're not billed out-of-pocket. Our insurance company said if they send in a pre-auth we'll know if it's covered or not.
I'm not sure whether I want it or not; how did you decide?
I'm probably terrible if I admit I really wanted to see the baby (otherwise it's just the anatomy scan at 20 weeks here, none of this u/s all the time business). I also would want to know if there was a high risk of a defect. If we chose to continue the pregnancy I'd need that time to adjust my expectations.
I had no other risk factors, so the added stress of a higher result wouldn't have been worth it to me.
Afterwards, I sort of wish I had done it only because it meant another excuse to see the baby and it felt like an ETERNITY to wait between my 7 wk and 18 wk ultrasounds.
Yes, and next time I will skip straight to the amnio. I need to know 100% not just probabilities. We got a bad probability that freaked me out, so we did the amnio. Then all was well.
So I suggest getting it so you know something. And also, agree with token, take an extra look at the baby
Yes, I had one. I had two m/cs and it came to light after those that DH was born with some potential heart and lung defects, so it was covered.
With my first pregnancy, it would not have been covered by insurance because it was a normal, healthy pregnancy. With this pregnancy, it was covered because of the history of loss and DH's medical history.
The arguments that usually come up on the Bump are either 1) I'm not going to terminate the pregnancy no matter what, so why bother; and 2) any potential issues will be discovered at the a/s later anyway. I didn't find either of those valid because for 1) if a defect was found we wouldn't have terminated, but would have used the time to prepare and gather information and for 2) the NT measurement can only be accurately taken as an indicator of various defects at a very specific time, so that's one less clue you have if you wait until the a/s.
I was fairly advanced maternal age and I have no family history as I am adopted.
Additionally, I have a very good friend who found out at 18w (anatomy scan) that her child had a condition incompatible with life. She had already told her friends, family and coworkers. It was a devastating situation and I saw how hard it was for her to un-tell and how judgy people were. We did not even tell our parents until after we had the NT and we would have done CVS or amnio if things had been at all worrisome.
We did it, both times. We would terminate for a genetic condition incompatible with life, and we would rather be making that decision at 12 weeks than 20 weeks. Beyond that, I would rather know sooner than later if my child is going to face particular health challenges so that I can start doing research, planning for any necessary intervention, etc. Knowledge is power.
We did it, both times. We would terminate for a genetic condition incompatible with life, and we would rather be making that decision at 12 weeks than 20 weeks. Beyond that, I would rather know sooner than later if my child is going to face particular health challenges so that I can start doing research, planning for any necessary intervention, etc. Knowledge is power.
Agree.
Be aware though that it was a total PITA for me to find out if it was covered by insurance. The insurance company told me that it would be covered if the doctor said it was "medically necessary". The doctor told me that they would submit the following codes and it would be up to the insurance company to decide if it were covered. And around and around it went - with me spending mucho time on hold. We ended up deciding to roll the dice since we knew that one way or another we'd meet our max OOP deductible once we finally had the baby.
Post by thatgirl2478 on Aug 7, 2012 14:30:01 GMT -5
I didn't - just the blood work. I will with the second because as the dr pointed out (when it was too late to actually get the NT scan but not the blood work) it's better to know about anything negative before it becomes an emergency. AKA they can plan to have whatever specialists they need in the OR waiting.
Post by barefootcontessa on Aug 7, 2012 14:30:11 GMT -5
The only thing the NT scan achieves that the anatomy scan does not is determine the size of the nuchal fold at a gestation when they can correlate a certain measurements with chromosomal abnormailities. That measurement plus results from bloodwork determine the likelihood of certain abnormalities. Our friends has a "normal" NT scan and still their daughter has DS. If you absolutely need to know, I would have the amino or CVS. Also, if you are older, your age will skew the results towards a positive screening. I do have the NT scan because I am not willing to do an amino, so none of the information would lead me to take action. I seen MFM for my anatomy scan and feel confident he would most likely be able to detect serious issues and am willing to live with things otherwise.
The only thing the NT scan achieves that the anatomy scan does not is determine the size of the nuchal fold at a gestation when they can correlate a certain measurements with chromosomal abnormailities. That measurement plus results from bloodwork determine the likelihood of certain abnormalities. Our friends has a "normal" NT scan and still their daughter has DS. If you absolutely need to know, I would have the amino or CVS. Also, if you are older, your age will skew the results towards a positive screening. I do have the NT scan because I am not willing to do an amino, so none of the information would lead me to take action. I seen MFM for my anatomy scan and feel confident he would most likely be able to detect serious issues and am willing to live with things otherwise.
I don't think the false negatives and false positives on the NT scan negate its value. The NT scan does a decent (though not perfect) job of assessing the probability of a defect, giving women who are not otherwise high risk a sense of whether a CVS or amnio may be warranted. It doesn't make sense for all young, low-risk women to get a CVS or amnio without any indication that there may be a problem, and I can't imagine insurance would cover it. The anatomy scan may yield similar information, but it does so at a much later stage of pregnancy. To a couple that would consider terminating for certain conditions, finding out at 12 weeks versus 20 weeks makes a huge difference.
No. I didn't want the probabilities to freak me out when there was nothing I could really do about them since we would not have terminated for any reason. Also, I'm high risk and had to do a Level II ultrasound that would have caught most abnormalities anyway, just at a bit later date.
We didn't because my OB told us that we were very low risk due to age and family history, and I knew that waiting for the results would stress me out even more than I was already stressing about the pregnancy (4th pregnancy, no outside babies yet).