What causes high risk of Down syndrome screening?

When a woman becomes pregnant, she will go to the hospital for some examinations on time. These examinations are all about the health of the fetus and the pregnant woman, so pregnant women must go to the hospital for various examinations in a timely manner as required, because many examination items are very important, such as Down syndrome screening is one of the important examinations. Everyone knows that there are more and more high-risk cases in Down syndrome screening, which will make many pregnant women more nervous during pregnancy. This nervousness will have an impact on both pregnant women and fetuses. Now let’s talk about the causes of high-risk Down syndrome screening.

1. Lifestyle

For example, staying up late, being addicted to smoking and drinking, having a bad diet, taking medicine incorrectly, etc., may all lead to abnormalities in the chromosomes of the egg and cause fetal malformations.

2. Work pressure and living environment

Nowadays, social pressure is quite high. Many mothers have to continue working during pregnancy and do not go home to give birth until the late pregnancy. Some mothers even continue working until they are about to give birth. The lack of adequate care during pregnancy, coupled with the deterioration of the living environment, has led to a significant increase in the incidence of deformities. Some mothers even have poor ovarian function due to these external factors before they become pregnant, which leads to chromosomal abnormalities in their eggs and greatly increases the probability of giving birth to a child with Down syndrome.

3. Age

Generally, the incidence of Down syndrome children will increase exponentially with the increase of pregnant age. The probability of a pregnant woman under 25 years old having a baby with Down syndrome is about one in 2,000, while for a pregnant woman over 35 years old, it is one in 300. If the pregnant mother is over 45 years old, the probability of giving birth to a child with Down syndrome is as high as one in forty.

4. Mood

Even if the result of Down syndrome screening is low risk, it does not mean that the child is necessarily safe. A negative Down syndrome screening result indicates that the possibility of the fetus being a child with Down syndrome is extremely small, but due to the limitations of the testing technology, there is still a false negative rate of 0.05% (that is, among 2,000 negative results, there is one child with Down syndrome). Therefore, pregnant women with negative screening results are reminded that they should continue to have prenatal checkups during the rest of their pregnancy. Once abnormalities such as excessive amniotic fluid, high umbilical vascular resistance, and fetal choroidal edema are found, they should be careful to rule out the possibility of having a child with Down syndrome.