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Pre-natal
testing is a difficult subject for many parents--the need to know about
your child to prepare for what is suspected versus the risks involved
and the new questions those answers only bring up. On this page we will
include information about pre-natal testing. If you would like to submit
your experiences with pre-natal testing, please click on the Submit
Articles button. (CBS)
Prenatal testing offers women and their families the opportunity to
prepare for the birth of their child. The overwhelming majority of women
get good news, but as The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler reports, some
do not.Bruce Campbell calls his son Jesse, “the soul man.”
As his 6-year-old dances, Bruce Cambell says, “He's our music
man, he's got all the soul in the family." If the Campbells had
taken the advice of their obstetrician, Jesse wouldn't be eating breakfast
with the family.To his wife, Elizabeth, Bruce Campbell says, “It
was so ironic because I think it was the OB who told you when you got
the diagnosis that she would not proceed, because she couldn't do that
to the other child." But the Campbell's other child, Ian, is proud
of Jesse. Ian says, "Jesse is a little different because he can
be a little slow, but he's pretty fast for a kid who is 6-years-old
with Down syndrome." In 1997, Elizabeth Campbell was 40 and pregnant
and had decided not to have any special prenatal tests. But that changed
when routine blood work revealed a 1-in-12 chance of having a child
with Down syndrome. Amniocentesis comfirmed the diagnosis. Bruce Campbell
recalls, "I said, 'This is it. This is when we find out once and
for all what we really think about life, death, God and who we are as
a family.'"The family found out their baby had a healthy heart
and within hours were on the phone with parents of other Down syndrome
children who painted a very different picture than their doctor. Elizabeth
Campbell says, "You get the phone call and they tell you that the
fetus has Down syndrome. What they can't tell you and they don't tell
you is that you will fall in love with this child, this child will delight
you, you will thrill at every accomplishment." Not surpising, according
to Professor George Annas, one of the country's leading bioethicists.He
says, "Very often we have very strange ideas about various disabilities,
that they're incompatible with life or incompatible with a happy life
or would be a drain on a family. The more information you can get about
real-life chances and choices, the better it would seem to me."
While the Campbells got their news during the second trimester, today,
more and more women are being offered non-invasive screening options
during the first trimester, which means news, good and bad, can be learned
earlier.Diana Graham and her husband married almost two years ago. The
next step in their storybook romance - a baby. Diana Graham says, "We
started out going for what we thought was going to be a relatively routine
ultrasound. And we were excited. And we thought, 'Well we'll see the
baby. We'll get some pictures.' You know, to send to our parents and
things like that." They had a procedure called a Nuchal Translucency
sonogram - one of the recent advances in first trimester testing. And
the news wasn't good. Diana Graham says, "What we were told by
all the different doctors that we spoke to was that most likely the
baby wouldn't be born. That fetuses with these findings usually die
during the pregnancy." The tests showed the baby had a cystic hygroma,
a fluid-filled sac on the back of its neck. After terminating their
pregnancy, they found out the baby was missing a chromosome. Diana Graham
notes, "It's been a really big roller coaster for us. I mean this
was three months ago. So I still should be pregnant. And the baby would
have been due in October. So it's up and down. And as we get a little
closer to October-- that's been a little bit harder for me." For
Diana Graham, the early knowledge was helpful. She says, "It would
have been harder and harder, as we went forward to think that things
were fine and then find out that things were drastically not fine." |