The Down Syndrome scare

The obstetrician who delivered Yan Yan was the second obstetrician we consulted during my pregnancy. What happened to the first? Well, we ditched him after he gave us a nasty scare about carrying a Down Syndrome (DS) baby.

At my 12th week check-up with the first obstetrician, Dr. T, he performed the nuchal translucency scan, and mine measured about 1mm, which is within the normal range of up to 2mm. At the 16th week, he performed the triple test. I got a call from him the very next day, informing me that the test came back positive, showing that I had an increased risk of carrying a DS baby. I was calm when I received the news, as I knew that the sensitivity of the test is only about 60%, and there's quite a high false positive rate. Nevertheless, I promptly trawled the Net for more information and the more I read about it, the more worried I became. I called him back the next day to discuss further, and found out that the results came back that my risk was approximately 1/200, while the normal risk for my age is approximately 1/350. He suggested that I do an amniocentesis, which I wasn't really keen on doing, due to the risk of miscarriage. All this happened just before our trip to Yogyakarta, so that totally spoilt my mood for the trip. But my gut feeling told me that my baby was fine, and interestingly, hubby had the same feeling too.

Upon our return from Yogyakarta, we seeked a second opinion from Dr. R, a former professor who specializes in problematic pregnancies. In our first consultation, he told us that his method of screening for DS was slightly different. He would perform a different blood test in the first trimester, and if the blood test indicated an increased risk, then only would he measure the nuchal translucency. He questioned the wisdom of doing the triple test, which is less sensitive compared to the nuchal translucency scan with 80% accuracy – it's like taking a step backwards. But since my triple test results came back as such, he couldn't refute the results.

Anyway, he offered to perform a thorough anomaly scan to look for structural abnormalities associated with DS - primarily the head, heart and kidneys. After looking at the scan, he told us that all the major organs looked perfect to him. He also said the distance between the thumb and index finger for a DS baby is normally far apart, and the thumb is normally very small (if I'm not mistaken). But my baby didn’t show any of these characteristics. In a nutshell, he reassured us that the baby should be fine and the chances of her being a DS baby is <1%. He didn't think we should bother with doing an amniocentesis. But he did caution us that two of his patients (28yo and 30yo) who had all normal test results and scans, turned out to be DS baby. But to us, as long as he opined that our baby was fine, we were reassured. After all, he's seen enough complicated pregnancies, and has the experience to predict with reasonable certainty whether the baby was normal or otherwise. And after his good prognosis, had our baby really turned out to be a DS baby, then I suppose it's really God's will.

I didn't have the courage to share this earlier, lest the worst really happened. Now that all's well, I thought perhaps it's a story worth sharing and preserving.

I should also add that I'm truly blessed that Dr. R agreed to take me in as his patient, as he normally doesn't accept new patients planning a normal delivery. His new patients are mainly complicated pregnancies, or those planning a C-sect birth. He had told me upfront that he would follow me through to 20+ weeks, after which he would pass me on to either of his two partners. As he was still seeing me by my 30th week, I asked him if I should start following-up with his partners. I was pleasantly surprised when he said that since he had been seeing me thus far, he'd follow through with my delivery. I guess I've to thank my lucky star, and THANK YOU Dr. R, for being such a patient, kind and gentle doctor.