The Prenatal Screening Results

December 10, 2009 | Posted by Jennie

Yesterday we made another trip down to the city to see our Baby’s Doctor for the results of our ultrasound and our prenatal screening tests. Although a bit nervous, we always seem to be very excited when we see our Doctor because we get to talk about the Baby!

Clearly the most pressing matter we needed to discuss was the results of our Serum Integrated Prenatal Screen (SIPS) test. Thankfully our results came back negative. But what does this mean exactly? According to the BC Prenatal Genetic Screening Program, “As part of your screen result, you will be given a number that estimates the chance your baby has one of these conditions. This number is compared to the screen cut-off. The screen cut-off is the chance above which you will be offered diagnostic testing. If your chance is lower than the screen cut-off, this is called a screen negative result. If this number is higher than the screen cut-off, this is called a screen positive result.”

Our results were DS 1/1700 NTD 1/770 which is apparently a negative result that is lower than the screen cut-off. So good news for us. Remember a positive result does not mean that your child has any of these prenatal conditions but that further testing is available to the parents for more accurate results.

According to the ultrasound everything looked normal as well, good measurements and good size. Apparently I am also growing at the correct rate as well which is good to hear. However I did have one concern…I still haven’t felt the baby move! So I asked my Doctor why I haven’t felt anything yet. He said he was going to ask me whether or not I had been feeling any movement yet and since I have not it probably means that my placenta is in an anterior position. So he checked over the ultrasound results again and found that he was correct.

So what does an Anterior Placenta mean? It means that the placenta is located on the front wall of my uterus acting as a pillow between my belly and the baby preventing me from detecting early movement. I have to say I’m a little disappointed! All this week I’ve been trying to feel around and now I’m not sure when I will feel our little M.J.

Are there any other concerns related to an Anterior Placenta? Unfortunately yes! I’m just learning now that there is a higher potential risk for bleeding with Anterior placentas regarding Caesarean sections. Unfortunately they can be located where the Doctor needs to perform the surgery, and for those women who have already had a Caesarean section, their placenta could grow over the original scar which could cause the placenta to grow into and through the uterus wall.

Yikes! I’m a little nervous now! I hope I do not run into any problems with that when the time comes! However today I am happy and confident in knowing that things seem to be going along smoothly.