Prenatal screening are blood tests with an ultrasound, which are done starting at 11 weeks of pregnancy and they tell you your chance of having a baby with Down syndrome, trisomy 18 or structural abnormality.
Screening tests cannot tell you for sure whether or not your baby has one of these three conditions, only the chance of this.
To find out for sure, you would have to decide whether to have a DIAGNOSTIC test
Every woman has a risk of having a baby with Down syndrome. A screening test is offered to all women during early pregnancy to look at the risk in this pregnancy of the baby being born with Down syndrome.
It is important to understand that the screening test does not give a definite ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer as to whether or not the baby does have Down syndrome. If your screening test shows a high risk that the baby has Down syndrome, you will usually be offered a diagnostic test.
- Enhanced first trimester screening or NT scan
- Non-invasive cell free fetal DNA test ( NIPT )
- Quadruple test
- Genetic sonogram.
Pre-eclampsia occurs in around 1 in 50 pregnancies. It is pregnancy induced high blood pressure and is one of the most common life threatening conditions occurring in pregnancy.
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Premature or preterm labour is when you have labour pains which opens and shortens your cervix before 37 weeks of gestation.This leads to the baby being born too early.
About 1 in 10 babies are born premature.
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