Felin told me that she had arranged for a Trimester Scan last Thursday and brought back a brochure with heading "Screening for Chromosomal Abnormalities". I suspect the scanning will eventually end up with us doing the OSCAR test. This test really rhymes because I seems to hear it quite often from my friends and clients.
OSCAR stands for ‘One-stop Clinic for Assessment of Risk for Fetal Anomalies’. It is a test carried out in the first trimester to screen for the risk of fetal anomalies, particularly for Down’s Syndrome (Trisomy 21). An OSCAR test is optional and is available at all hospitals and involves a Nuchal Translucency (NT) scan and a blood test. Doctor usually schedule it usually between the 11th to 14th week of pregnancy.
I met a lovely couple called Susan and Andy to discuss some insurance stuffs today. Susan is expecting a pair of twin girls at 19th week and she shared her rollercoaster pregnancy journey which only stabilised recently. One of the thing she shared is this OSCAR test which her obtained ratio is 1:250. This ratio seems good but the doctor advised her to do further test like amniocentesis which carry chance of miscarriage like 1:100. They spent several thousands more just to get further opinion and eventually need not go through it.
They told me about another of my friend who had a ratio of 1:90 and was so fearful over the weeks that she kept crying when thinking about it. She went for the Amnio test and suffered the risk and pain. That friend of mine eventually had a beautiful pair of twins too. That friend's sister also went for it and had a ratio as bad as 1:5 but eventually have a healthy baby in the end. These are just some examples I heard in the past and my friends told me that this test is not necessary and will likely end up more stress, anxiety and easily few more thousands to be spent.
I haven't researched much about this and I'm still not too sure what had Felin arranged for. But I hope I don't need to do such a test eventually because the chance of bad result seems high and whether got down syndrome or not, we are keeping the baby, aren't we? Anyway, see what happens in the next 2 weeks.
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