Is Down syndrome screening necessary?

For pregnant women, it is best to do Down syndrome screening, because Down syndrome screening mainly involves extracting serum from the pregnant woman's body to check whether the fetus is developing normally. If a deformed child is detected, the pregnancy can be ended as soon as possible. Down syndrome screening is divided into early and late stages. If you really don’t want to do Down syndrome screening, you can choose to do late Down syndrome screening during the sixteenth week of pregnancy.

Down screening is mainly for screening of Down syndrome.

It is to check whether the baby will be a Down syndrome baby with congenital idiocy, mainly checking alpha-fetoprotein, human chorionic gonadotropin and free estriol.

Fetuses with Down syndrome are not exclusive to older pregnant women.

Although older pregnant women over 35 years old are closely related to Down syndrome, the older the age, the greater the chance of giving birth to a child with Down syndrome. However, young women may also give birth to children with Down syndrome, and only 20% of Down syndrome occurs in older pregnant women, while the other 80% of Down syndrome fetuses are born to young pregnant women under 35 years old. Therefore, if only older pregnant women are examined, it will not be a good way to prevent Down syndrome.

If all pregnant women were offered amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling.

Not only is the cost relatively high, it also increases the chance of miscarriage, so it is not necessary for all women to undergo amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling. Currently, the best way to prevent Down syndrome is that all young pregnant women undergo Down syndrome screening tests, and those who are shown to be at high risk undergo amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling. Through amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling, it can be determined whether the fetal chromosomes are normal and whether the fetus has Down syndrome.

Down syndrome is also known as congenital idiocy or trisomy 21.

Among the 23 pairs of chromosomes in the human body, chromosome 21 is a relatively short pair, carrying less genetic material. Even if abnormalities occur, they will not cause fatal consequences. Therefore, there will not necessarily be anything unusual when carrying a fetus with Down syndrome. There may not be repeated vaginal bleeding or slow fetal growth. The baby will often be born safely and the life span is not short.