Antenatal Screening

Afraid about the health of your unborn baby? Here is what you need to know

About

It is done during pregnancy to identify the risk of any disorder in the baby while it is a foetus.

Only 50% of women globally receive sufficient care during the time of pregnancy.

- Antenatal screening is different from diagnosis
- It is used to confirm whether the disorder is present or absent
- Quality of the screening test is categorized as ‘detection rate and ‘false positive rate
- There is a slight chance of miscarriage

Antenatal also was known as prenatal is used to assess the health of both mother and fetus. consists of 8 to 12 appointments with the doctor during the time of pregnancy. It involves two main procedures namely Amniocentesis and Chorionic Villus Sampling.

Interpretation

The screening tests are primarily focussed to detect disorders such as Down's syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, Spinal muscular atrophy and Cystic fibrosis.
The results may be either ‘screen positive or ‘screen negative.
Screen positive - High risk and further diagnosis has to be done.
Screen negative - Low risk but the possibility of the disorder cannot be completely excluded.

Quality

Determined by detection rate and ‘false detection rate
Detection rate - Percentage of affected pregnancies identified as high risk
False positive rate - Percentage of unaffected pregnancies identified as high risk

At mfine, we use state of the art equipment and procedures to make sure that your newborn baby and the mother is safe and healthy.