Last time I was pregnant, they never offered this. To be honest, I haven't heard much about it. Are you/did you have it? Why or why not? What are the benefits?

It is the same thing the Americans call the AFP test. It tests Alpha-Fetoprotein, it is a "blood test designed to indicate an increased risk for fetal open neural tube defects, such as spina bifida. It may also indicate an increased risk for Down syndrome." There is a very high rate of false positives for this test and if you want to make sure the results are accurate you can have an amniocentisis. Results can be high due to maternal age (ie over 35) or twins.

I did not have this when I was pregnant with Mason, and I had to sign a sheet saying I didn't want it. I think it is now a legal requirement (in Canada) that the doctor offers it to you. I also did not have amnio. I knew the MSS/AFP test would come back high because of my age, and they can check for spina bifida (I think) and Down's Syndrome on the ultrasound, by measurements they do, and if necessary I could have had amnio after that.

I personally see no benefit to it other than to freak out expectant mothers with the 80% false positive rate. (This is my opinion, I am sure others have differing opinions.)

Go with your gut! :)

i also declined the afp due to the high false positives, however i did elect to have the amnio (but i'm much older than you carla).

Listen Kim :angrywife I am the same age as you and we are not MUCH older than her. Simply older. :) We aren't blue hairs yet! :lol: :lol:

:lol:

I also declined the AFP. My doctor said that if I didn't want to worry about a false positive then he wouldn't do it. I really didn't need that stress, so I declined. I'll decline next time as well.

I declined the test with both girls. Not only are there alot of false positives but to me it didn't matter. I would have had my baby even if she was going to have spina bifida or Down's. Plus I didn't see the need to put myself through the stress waiting for the results.

I declined with Jackson and will with this baby as well. I felt the same way as Mandi about the results.

I also declined for both pregnancies. They can see spina bifida and downs on an u/s. I also would not do anything if my child had either. So, I found the test pointless. Plus, I am not in any of the high risk categories.

I also declined for both pregnancies. They can see spina bifida and downs on an u/s. I also would not do anything if my child had either. So, I found the test pointless. Plus, I am not in any of the high risk categories.

I feel just like this! I will decline it once again! I don't want to have an amnio!

Im such a high strung anxoius person that all the stress we would have went thorugh wasnt worth it. I declined. We will love this baby no matter what, and were not going to have any kind of extra tests done even if it was positive.


Rhonda

I guess I'm the odd woman out. I decided to have the test. I prefer having as much information as is available to me about things, and if something were wrong, even though it wouldn't have changed how I felt about the child, I would want the time to research the problem and prepare for it. If I'd gotten a positive result, they would've done more testing to determine whether it was a false positive or not, so I wasn't too worried about that. Luckily, though, we got a negative, so that wasn't an issue.

I definitely think whether or not to have it done depends very much on your personality. For some, it would be more stress-inducing to have it; for others, not to have it.

Kate

Another one who declined here. I would have the baby regardless, so I did not need the test to determine if I would carry the baby to term. Also, I have read and heard much about false positives and did not want to put myself through that - and was very afraid of having an amnio done to confirm any positive results. I have had to struggle with not worrying about everything during this pregnancy so I decided to opt out of this worry and just take what comes.

I completely see all the reasons why women chose to have the test as well, so it's all just a personal choice.

No one ever talks about it, but they also have a pretty high false negative rate...for the triple screen it doesn't pick up 80% of downs cases, 70% of heart defects, or 60% of neuro tube defects, combine that with the 95%+ false positive rate and my midwife said the test honestly tells you nothing.

Jillian - you're absolutely right. This happened to a 30 year old friend of mine. First pregnany, she was not in any high risk group, but decided to get the test. Came back completely normal. Her adorable little boy with Down's Syndrome was born a few months later.


I just saw absolutely no benefit (to us) to taking the test, so we skipped it.

I chose to take the test. Terminating the pregnancy was NEVER an option--my reasoning for taking the test was that if something was wrong, I wanted to know so that DH and I could prepare ourselves as much as possible. Thankfully, my results came back negative, and my daughter was born completely healthy.

I did take the test, mostly because i wasn't sure what it was and i wasn't really given the option to turn it down.

After a lot of thought, we decided to take the test. Like some of you already noted, it was so we could prepare ourselves and do research if there was something wrong and had nothing to do with terminating the pregnancy if it had been positive.

I am a Type I diabetic, so we were at a higher risk for neural tube defects. I decided to have it done, if for no other reason than to have the hospital/my OB know to look more closely at the ultrasound if there were cause. Down's syndrome was not at all a concern for me, and we most definitely would have proceeded with the pregnancy.

I'm glad I did it, in the long run, b/c my results were only slighted elevated on their diabetic scale (lower threshold number b/c of more incidents), and we had an extensive ultrasound which proved nothing was wrong.

Marcie

I did not have it done. I am young, and I was taking folic acid before I became pg, so I thought that my risk was low enough.

Sarah

I did not have it done during my last pregnancy. My OB supported my decision due to the high rate of false positives. We relied on the ultrasound to identify if there were any problems. If I were to get pregnant again I would probably skip it again.

Lora

I also declined for both pregnancies. They can see spina bifida and downs on an u/s. I also would not do anything if my child had either. So, I found the test pointless. Plus, I am not in any of the high risk categories.
My thoughts exactly!

I am one of the few that will be having this done, next Wednesday actually. No reason for having it done.....it's just something that hubby and I agreed on doing.

Technically, the term "false positive" is misleading. The result is never false. If the test says you have higher or lower levels of AFP than are typical, then you do. The problem is that the AFP is only a screening test, not a diagnostic one, so it can't tell you exactly *why* your levels are atypical. It could mean Downs, Spina Bifida, or other conditions. On the other hand, it could mean a multiple birth, maternal age over 35, an inaccurate assessment of your due date resulting in the test being performed too early or too late, or any number of other things. You'd then need an amnio to confirm the presence of any specific genetic problems. I know I didn't want to risk that kind of worry over a test that, basically, wasn't telling me much of anything!

Since I wasn't willing to have an amnio, my OB sent me for a level II u/s in place of the AFP. My main worry was finding out if the baby had Spina Bifida, since then a C-section would need to be arranged. I was told that as many of 97% of Spina Bifida cases can be detected by u/s, and those odds sounded a lot better to me.