Hrm, I don't get it though. Doing an amnio puts the baby at risk. What if something happens to a baby and it dies (a low chance, I know, but still there). Does it mean that it's still ok, just because it wasn't intentional?
I don't get amnios anyway. I figure I'm not going to abort no matter what, and anything really big is likely to be caught on an ultrasound, so there's no real point. The only problem with this scenario is that amnios have been decreasing in popularity as ultrasounds got better.
They still use amnios in late pregnancy to test for lung maturity. I had 2 done with Jamie and one with Alex, since it was important for me to induce early. They justwanted to make sure it wasn't TOO early.
And as for getting the amnio, even if you are going to continue the pregnancy? HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Not that what my son has would have shown up on the amnio, but knowing now what I know about life with a disabled child, the SECOND you know you can make your life easier and really have an amazing prognosis for your child.
Plus quite honestly, if I knew earlier that my son was disabled, I would have had disability and all the benefits of that so much earlier. He'd probably be doing so much better if I had an early DX.
*nods* I completely agree. If any of my ultrasounds or triple screens had shown anything squicky, I would have wanted an amnio and any other diagnostic tests needed. I never would have aborted, but I cope much better if I know exactly what I am dealing with. Plus wanting to find the best doctors, best hospital, etc.
No, because taking amniotic fluid does involve a certain risk to mother and child, but especially to the child. I don't have amnios, because they're only necessary as a screening process for genetic abnormalities and I wouldn't abort anyway, so ultrasounds provide all the screening I need.
Not that I'm aware of. But it doesn't need to be harvested like blood, because all they should need (theoretically, of course) is one amniotic sample for each tissue type. There aren't that many tissue types, so the amnios done for medical reasons can produce enough fluid to meet the need, without anyone having an amnio for whom it's not advisable anyway.
I wonder if they could get the fluid during delivery or something? Probably impractical. Maybe thru the dialated cervix, if you are willing to be a donor? Hrm.
Hmmm... I don't know how impractical it would be. Midwives (and probably OBs) often break the mother's water to get a stalled labour moving. There's a sort of twiggy thing that seems to be standard in hospital delivery rooms for doing exactly that so it must happen a lot. It probably wouldn't be too impractical to catch a little vial or swab of fluid at the same time. The number of cells a doctor can swab during a pap smear is enough to do tests on, so it might even be possible to add a swab tip to the water-breaking-twiggy thing and maybe even that would be enough to get a replicable number of amniotic fluid cells.
I always thought it looked like an orange peeler or something.
You could do it with csection patients, that's probably easier, or maybe the needle thru the cervix would be enough. I dont know if the swab would be enough, though?
And the other problem with during labor may be the whole meconium thing. How often is there meconium at birth? Happened 2 out of 3 times for me.
Scheduled c-sections - probably almost always possible, because they're almost always before labour has begun. Emergency sections - probably not so much. My water broke before both of my sections.
I was excited when Iread about this yesterday. Seems like a very good solution.
My concerns are, as always, how far stem cell research is going to go. I'm very uncomfortable with the thought of cloning humans, and I'm afraid scientists will try just to say they were able to do it. It's all very frankenstein-y to me. I'm all for medical research and cures for diseases (please find one for type 2 diabetes!), but the slippery slope thing applies here.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
no subject
no subject
I don't plan on getting pregnant again, so I don't think that will come up. LOL
no subject
no subject
no subject
And as for getting the amnio, even if you are going to continue the pregnancy? HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Not that what my son has would have shown up on the amnio, but knowing now what I know about life with a disabled child, the SECOND you know you can make your life easier and really have an amazing prognosis for your child.
Plus quite honestly, if I knew earlier that my son was disabled, I would have had disability and all the benefits of that so much earlier. He'd probably be doing so much better if I had an early DX.
Amnio does that.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Yay for non-embryonic stem cell sources!
no subject
You could do it with csection patients, that's probably easier, or maybe the needle thru the cervix would be enough. I dont know if the swab would be enough, though?
And the other problem with during labor may be the whole meconium thing. How often is there meconium at birth? Happened 2 out of 3 times for me.
no subject
no subject
My concerns are, as always, how far stem cell research is going to go. I'm very uncomfortable with the thought of cloning humans, and I'm afraid scientists will try just to say they were able to do it. It's all very frankenstein-y to me. I'm all for medical research and cures for diseases (please find one for type 2 diabetes!), but the slippery slope thing applies here.