Prenatal Testing- Take 2

Wow.  What a difference a day makes.  My head is spinning from everything that's happened in the past 24 hours.  Some of you may remember I wrote a post on our decision to decline prenatal screenings with this pregnancy.  We were firm with our decision and I was amazingly calm about the potential for another birth diagnosis.

Yesterday at my appointment with the midwife I was shocked to learn we would have to consult with an OB because Kennedy's history brought me into a risk category.  I discussed it at length with my wonderful midwife and felt comfortable with the fact that I would have to have a level II ultrasound to look for soft markers for Down syndrome or a heart defect.  Unfortunately this also meant that if there were concerns, I would potentially have to follow through with an amnio.  The more I thought about this, and talked to my husband about it, the more nervous I got.  Not about having another baby with Down syndrome.  But about having another baby with medical complications, which is clearly a higher risk when a child has Down syndrome.  Then there was the potential that the level II ultrasound would be fine, and we could still have a shocking birth diagnosis.  I absolutely do not want to risk out of care with the midwives, but at this point it seems inevitable that we could end up with a prenatal diagnosis, and now my anxiety level is at 300.  After much research, consideration and discussion, we have a new game plan.

I'm waiting for a call to schedule an appointment with the Maternal Fetal Medicine physician about 1.5 hours from us.  We'll be consulting with her, in order to obtain the MaterniT21 test.  This will tell us with about 99% accuracy if the baby has Down syndrome or not.  Best case scenario - we find out that the baby does not have Down syndrome, and we are able to continue care as planned, as long as there are no cardiac concerns that would prohibit it.  Worst case, if we find out that the baby does have Down syndrome, we will be risked out of the birth center.  Down syndrome doesn't scare me.  But the health issues that can come with it, do.  And so does the idea of risking out of my midwives care.  After they played such a huge role in Kennedy's birth, and the postpartum period, I cannot imagine them not being a part of this pregnancy.  I do have a game plan in my mind, if that's what it comes down to.  We had a wonderful experience at the hospital where Kennedy's heart surgery was performed, and in order to avoid the stress and tears that our NICU experience provided us, I would not hesitate to drive that far, if it meant having a better experience.  But in the end, hopefully it doesn't come down to that.

So for now, we wait.  Oddly enough, I was okay with waiting until birth to know whether or not this baby had Ds, but now that the wait is only weeks away, my anxiety level is through the roof over it.  Maybe as the birth got closer I would have felt this way anyway?  Who knows.  Hopefully, they will be able to schedule the appointment in a reasonable time frame, and 8 days after having the test completed, we'll know what to expect, one way or another.