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What is it used for? of Antenatal screening
Antenatal screening helps doctors to estimate how likely it is that a baby could have a serious abnormality. If the tests show a high enough risk of the baby developing a serious condition, and the mother’s age and medical history also increase the risk, then a diagnostic test is usually offered. This is called prenatal diagnosis and provides more information about the likelihood of the baby having an abnormality.
Mothers are carefully selected before being offered a diagnostic test, because they are quite invasive (involve going into the body) and carry a small risk of miscarriage. It’s also important to remember that screening isn’t always accurate – some women are told there may be a problem only to find the diagnostic test shows this is not the case (see Results section).
Following the integrated blood test screening, a diagnostic test may be offered if the chance of the baby having a serious abnormality is calculated to be more than one in 100. For the other screening tests, a diagnostic test is offered if chance is more than one in 250.
However, a risk of 1:100 is still only a 1% chance of the baby having an abnormality, which is the same as one out of every 100 babies. Therefore, the mother’s age, medical and family history are also carefully considered before a diagnostic test is offered.
The diagnostic tests that may be offered are usually amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling, or ultrasound scanning. For further information about these tests, please see the separate encyclopaedia entries.
The mother does not have to have a diagnostic test, and it is important to for both parents to think about what the results may mean.
