Amniocentesis

Most women that have been pregnant will be aware of the invasive genetic testing that is the ‘AMNIO’!!

In all pregnancies I have been against it/not seen a need for it as to us and our family it made no difference what our child was or had. I have worked a lot in my life with children and adults with special needs and various syndromes and it has never bothered me and so knew if I ever bore a child with special needs I would just get on and raise them as “Normal”(hate that word) as possible.

It then was an extremely difficult decision to make when we were told that in this pregnancy it was an essential test in order to determine babies care plan. I have been shocked over the last 10 weeks at how many times I have been asked by Drs if we would like to continue or terminate the pregnancy. We have always, with out doubt, said that that is never an option for us. We have since been told that should baby Smith be born with a syndrome that is fatal, they will not proceed with surgery but that we will have a “comfort care” plan. How painful is that to hear??? The baby we are fighting so hard for doesn’t really stand a chance of life if she possesses one of 3 syndromes! With all this info, the choice was almost taken from us… we decided to wait until 30 weeks and risk pre-term labour as oppose to a miscarriage. We not only wanted the Drs to have as much info as possible but should it be bad news we wanted time to come to terms with it and know that we wouldn’t have long with our baby. Or (hopefully) if its all clear or not a life threatening syndrome then we and the Drs can do all we can to help her have the best chance possible.

Today at 30 + 2 after deciding it was right to go ahead with the Amnio off we went to have it done! EEEEK!
I was super anxious and quite emotional about the whole thing all week but today felt quite composed, the staff were excellent and so nice and clear about everything:

They first put some freezing sterile solution over my tummy and then inserted the narrow 12″ needle! (Sorry no pic of that part) It really didn’t take long, the needle felt much like a bee sting and they managed to take 20ml of amniotic fluid to test. Baby seemed fine after, as did I (so far). The bonus was we also had a 3d scan prior and saw some great pictures! We will know the outcome in 24hrs and any other chromosome problems within 2 weeks. We hope and pray she has a chance… our beautiful baby Smith the 3rd!