The dream of every future mother is to give birth to a healthy full-fledged child. And the methods of diagnosing the condition of the fetus are called for early in pregnancy to find out whether the baby is healthy or if there are any deviations. But not everything is so simple. Antenatal diagnosis of fetal status is not the safest study and is not always accurate.
First of all, let's define the terms. Prenatal diagnosis is an antenatal diagnosis in order to detect fetal pathology at the stage of intrauterine development. To this diagnosis is the definition of paternity in the early stages of pregnancy and the sex of the child. Prenatal diagnosis allows to detect Down's syndrome and other chromosomal diseases, disorders of the development of the heart, gross deformities of the brain and spinal cord, spinal hernia. And also to determine the degree of maturity of the fetal lungs, the degree of oxygen starvation of the fetus and other diseases.
Risk group
Before deciding on prenatal diagnosis without special evidence, parents should remember - it is unsafe for the child. The usual anxiety inherent in all future parents is not yet an excuse for diagnosing the condition of the fetus. However, it is necessary for pregnant women:
• over 35 years of age;
• women who already had children with birth trauma and unsuccessful pregnancies.
• Women who have already had cases of hereditary diseases or women who are potential carriers of such diseases;
• women who have been examined since conception for the effects of unknown substances. This is due to the fact that they can be very harmful for a developing child;
• women who have had infectious diseases (toxoplasmosis, rubella, and others);
In 95% of cases, methods of prenatal diagnosis do not show many obvious defects. And if the deviation in the development of the fetus is still revealed, the question arises of the advisability of continuing the pregnancy. This decision is made only by parents, and it must be considered and weighed! There are cases when women kept pregnancy despite the results of diagnosis and at the same time gave birth to healthy children. Even a prenatal diagnosis confirmed by modern technical means may be imperfect. As a rule, parents interrupt their pregnancy only when the tests reveal a defect that can lead to serious complications or may be fatal. In this case, you need a consultation of a geneticist who can confirm or deny the diagnosis. It is worth emphasizing that the overwhelming number of parents try to preserve the life of the long-awaited child to the last.
Basic methods of prenatal diagnosis of fetal conditions
One of the main methods of the survey is the analysis of the pedigree of the parents. Physicians are interested in all the known cases of severe diseases, which are repeated from generation to generation. For example, the birth of a child with vices, miscarriages, infertility. If the family reveals hereditary diseases, then experts determine what percentage of the risk of its transmission to the offspring. This analysis can be carried out both during and before pregnancy.
Genetic analysis is the study of the chromosome set of both parents.
A separate group is invasive methods of diagnosing the fetus. They are carried out under ultrasound control, with local or general anesthesia, in the hospital. After the procedure, the pregnant woman for 4-5 hours is under the supervision of doctors. Invasive methods are:
• Chorion biopsy - diagnosis of cells from the future placenta. It is carried out at 8-12 weeks of pregnancy. The advantages of this method are the duration (up to 12 weeks) and the speed of response (3-4 days). Procedure: 1) First, a small amount of chorionic tissue is sucked through the syringe through a catheter, which is inserted into the cervical canal; 2) then a tissue sample is sucked into the syringe with a long needle inserted through the abdominal wall into the uterine cavity. Like any other method, biopsy is associated with risk. This risk of bleeding in a woman (1-2%), the risk of infection of the fetus (1-2%), the risk of miscarriage (2-6%), the risk of accidental damage to the bladder and other complications.
• placentocentesis (late chorion biopsy) - done in the second trimester. It is conducted in the same way as a biopsy;
• amniocentesis - analysis of amniotic fluid at 15-16 weeks of gestation. The liquid is pumped through a needle through a syringe inserted through the abdominal wall into the uterine cavity. This is the safest method of diagnosing the fetus - the percentage of complications does not exceed 1%. Disadvantages of this method of diagnosis: a long time of analysis (2-6 weeks), get results on average by 20-22 weeks. Also, the risk of producing small children is slightly increased and there is a small (less than 1%) risk of respiratory distress in newborns.
• cordocentesis - analysis of cord blood of the fetus. This is a highly informative method of diagnosis. The optimal deadline is -22-25 weeks. A sample of blood is taken with a needle from the vein of the umbilical cord inserted through the puncture of the anterior abdominal wall into the uterine cavity. The cordocentesis has a minimal probability of complications.
There are also non-invasive methods for diagnosing the fetus:
• screening of maternal serum factors - performed between 15 and 20 weeks of gestation. Material - venous blood of a pregnant woman. There is practically no risk for the fetus. This analysis is shown to all pregnant women.
• ultrasonic screening of the fetus, membranes and placenta (ultrasound). It is carried out on the dates 11-13 and 22-25 weeks of pregnancy. It is shown to all pregnant women.
• sorting of fetal cells - is conducted between 8 and 20 weeks of pregnancy. The material of the study is the woman's blood. In the blood are allocated fetal (fetal) cells, which are analyzed. The possibilities of this method are the same as in biopsy, placentocentesis and cordocentesis. But the risks are almost nonexistent. But this is a very expensive analysis and not reliable enough. This technique is not very often used today.
Thanks to various methods of diagnosing the condition of the fetus, it is possible to identify in advance dangerous diseases and take measures. Or be sure that there are no serious diseases. In any case, we wish health to you and your children!