Genetic Testing

So obviously I am new to this whole pregnancy thing and should probably ask more questions at our Dr appts. A few weeks ago I had some blood drawn at the Dr's office, which I THOUGHT was routine. It was actually for the AFP (alphfetoprotein) screening to see if the baby had any genetic defects. I REALLY wanted to opt of having these tests done, given the option, because there is such a high risk of getting false positives. Well my test came back abnormal and positive for down syndrome, so my Dr suggested I see a specialist to have a few more tests done. Last month was our first apt with the specialist. He told us we had a 1/64 chance of having a baby with DS. He did a level II ultrasound to see if there was any physical characteristics that would imply that the baby actually did in fact have DS. Everything looked normal and he said that the baby looked really good, healthy and is right on track for where I am at in the pregnancy. I was also offered to have an amniocentesis to be done. This is probably the only way to get a sure test result with the correct answer. But there is a 1 - 2% rate of fetal loss in preforming this test. So I decided not to have this test done. The next test offered is the fetal echo cardiogram. The fetal echo cardiogram is a specialized ultrasound that focuses on the fetus’s heart. The machine looks exactly the same as a regular ultrasound machine but images only the heart. It has specialized probes and hardware that allow clear images of the fetal heart. We are going to Apple Valley tomorrow to have this test preformed.

I guess they offer all of these tests so that you can know for sure if there is any defects with the baby so you can get the option to terminate the pregnancy. I just don't see how anyone could do that. No matter what kind of test results we get, the thought to terminate the pregnancy would never cross my mind. I know God would not give us anything that we wouldn't be able to handle. We are just too excited to start our family, no matter what the outcome! So wish us luck tomorrow. We are going to do some baby shopping while we are down there as well, since the selection in Ridgecrest isn't all that great.