Antenatal screening

  • used to find people or baby at higher chance of health problem

  • can get earlier and more effective treatment

  • not always accurate

  • done before 10 weeks to give best chance of knowing what implications may be and give mother chance to decide what would want to know from screening

  • can be done through blood test or ultrasound

  • ultrasounds help w. see spina biffida

  • invasive test- 16-22 weeks/ have 1:200 chance of miscariage

  • non-invasive test- more reliable/ look at placenta/ some choose to pay

routine blood test done-

  • full blood count (hemoglobin levels, platelet count)

  • blood group

  • antibodies

infectious diseases blood test-

  • hepatitis B

  • HIV

  • syphilis

inherited diseases blood test-

  • haemoglobinopathies

  • sickle cell

  • thalassemia

risks-

  • doesnt cause harm but can cause psychological damage and hard decisions

  • some decisions can lead to a decision on if want to end pregnancy

  • decision will always be mothers and can go to health care proffessional for advice

time of screening-

  • pre-pregnancy: HIV/ hepatitis B/ syphilis (infectious diseases)

  • before 10 weeks: sickle cell/ thalassaemia (inherited conditions)

  • between 11-14 weeks: down syndrome/ edwards syndrome/ patau’s syndrome

anomaly scan-

  • look at bones/ heart/ brain/ spinal cord/ face/ abdomen

  • cant find all conditions