In my first pregnancy I found the whole experience of the antenatal tests very stressful - much more so I feel than my husband. I had read up in advance and thought I'd just go for the triple test at around 16 weeks. However when it came to agreeing to the test all I could think about was that if I went ahead I would be starting on a process that could lead us to facing the decision to have a termination. I just couldn't imagine ever making that decision so part of me felt that there was no point in having the test.

My husband couldn't understand this and was, I felt, very logical in his thinking - "wouldn't it be better to know if something was wrong as then if we decided to keep the baby we could plan ahead?" My head could see his point but my heart really struggled with the 'if we decide to keep the baby' bit!!

The fact that you could only have the test from 16 weeks also freaked me out - by the time the results came back it would be 18 weeks, then if I needed to have an amniocentesis that would be another few weeks leaving me facing the thought of a possible termination at past 20 weeks - AARRHHGG!

I felt that my midwife was also very clinical about the whole process and there was no suggestion of talking to someone about my decision - it was as though there was no decision to make, of course I'd have the tests!!

In the end I did decide to go ahead but the two weeks of waiting for the results to arrive were agonising -no matter how much I told myself I was low risk it was just impossible not to worry constantly! The relief of reading the letter when it came was immense.

I am currently pregnant with my second baby and this time I've felt very different. Having to think about our 7 year old son as well as ourselves we decided very early on to have the tests - the only question was which.

I was still very concerned about starting any testing process at 16 weeks so decided to pay for a Nuchal Fold Scan which is performed at 12 weeks. I knew from a friend that this could then be followed by Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS) and we would know if there were any problems by 14 weeks!

Janet

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