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Tuesday, January 16, 2007

First Major Mommy Decision

For the last several weeks I have developed a nightly routine. I go to bed around 10pm and my bladder wakes me up around 12:30pm. My bladder again wakes me up around 4am. I have become so used to this routine that I basically do it with my eyes closed so I can easily fall back to sleep. I guess this is natures way of preparing me for what is yet to come!
Last night my bladder woke me up at 3:30am, but unfortunately, I was not able to fall back to sleep because of a major concern that kept playing over and over in my head. Needless to say, I never did fall back to sleep. My concern? Should I or should I not have my baby tested for Downs Syndrome.
When Greg and I were pregnant the last two times, we had both agreed not to have this testing completed because it would not affect our decision on keeping our baby. When I told my doctor this last week, she gave me some additional information that made me change my mind. She pointed out that I was 35 years old and that they can now determine Downs thru an ultra sound that does not cause miscarriages and the test is 90% accurate. She also said that many Downs baby's are born with heart conditions and it's important to be educated and to prepare ourselves. So, I initially agreed to have the test. This decision has been weighing heavily on my heart, hence, no sleep last night. I then did some research on the accuracy of this new test and spoke to a mother whom actually had this test completed. The information I learned was that this new test doesn't actually give you a true positive or a true negative. It gives you only additional statistics on your likelihood of the baby having Downs. The mother I spoke to said her ultra sound indicated that she was in the "very likely" category of having a Downs child. As a result, for a full month she worried endlessly until they were able to complete an amnio. test on her. This test determined that the baby didn't have Downs.
So, with this additional information, I have decided not to have the testing completed and I cancelled my appointment. Being pregnant is a time for bonding with your child not worrying everyday if "the test" was accurate. We will love our child no matter what happens. A child is a blessing and no test is going to change that. Now, can I go back to sleep??!!

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