Julie, 41, from Hoyt, KS asks...
I have had one ectopic pregnancy and 2 ectopic/abnormal pregnancies. I just took a home pregnancy test and it is positive. We are so excited. My youngest daughter has Downs Syndrome and is the love of our lives. I had her at age 35. How far along do you have to be before you can have the HCG test done to check for DS? I plan to go to my OB/GYN on Tuesday and start the blood tests. Thanks for listening.

Stacy Says...
First of all, congradulations! I applaud your unconditional love and committment to your daughter!

As fasr as testing goes, I'm not sure what "HCG" test you're talking about. HCG is the hormone that's in your urine when you are pregnant. However, there are two different types of tests. Screening and Diagnostic. Screening Tests include:

• Nuchal translucency testing. This is performed between 11 and 14 weeks and measure the amounts of clear space in the folds of tissue behind the baby's neck. Added with the mother's age and baby's gestational age, this is an accurate "guess" 80% of the time.
  
• The triple screen (also called the multiple marker test) and the alpha fetoprotein plus. This is doen between 15-20 weeks and measure different substances in the mother's blood.

• A detailed ultrasound. This is often performed in conjunction with the blood tests, and it checks the fetus for some of the physical traits associated with Down syndrome. However, these screening tests are only about 60% accurate and often lead to false-positive or false-negative readings.If any of these are "positive" then diagnostic testing can be done. More than likely, with your age and previous birth, chances are they will do more diagnostic testing.

Diagnostic testing includes:

• Amniocentesis, Chronic Villus Sampling (CVS) and Percutaneous umbilical blood sampling (PUBS). For the msot part, all of these tests are done between 2-5 months of pregnancy and involve taking samples of amniotic fluid or the placenta to test for chromosomal abnormalities. However, they carry with them the risk of preterm labor or miscarriage.

Personally, I wouldn't risk the diagnostic testing. If you know you would do nothing different with the pregnancy, if you know that if you had another child with Down's Syndrome nothing would change your feelings for the baby--why risk injuring it? I had the option of several different kinds of testing, being diabetic my chances of birth defects were increased. I turned them all down. If anything was "wrong" with the baby, I wouldn't change my mind about the baby, so what did it really matter? Talk with your doctor, talk with your husband, do what you feel is right for your child.