I heard two more nightmare stories about the 16 wk AFP tests....

My mom's friends daughter and her friends daughter both got false-positives on the AFP test and had to go for an amnio. Of course the amnio came back fine and their babies are perfectly healthy.

I was questiong whether to do this being my ultrascreen at 12 wks came out fine. My dr. is trying to push it on me b/c he said they use the AFP testing for neural tube defects. I am already 17 wks. DH and I discussed it and regardless, we would want to keep the baby. Besides, doesn't/can't the 20 wk Level II sono tell you if the baby has any neural tube defects or anything else wrong?

Re: I heard two more nightmare stories about the 16 wk AFP tests....

I don't think that the 20 wk sono can tell neural tube defects. Two people that I know got a false positive and they did not want the amnio.

It is definately a personal decision. But remember that God forbid there is spina bfida or anything like that, there are different steps to follow as to how to deliver and stuff like that.

Re: I heard two more nightmare stories about the 16 wk AFP tests....

I was reading some info. on line and apparently a sonogram and amnio are used to confirm and diagnose the severity if the AFP test comes back positive. If you think about it, the amnio is just going to confirm the blood results. The sonogram is going to show where the spinal cord is affected, if the brain is affected, etc.

Re: I heard two more nightmare stories about the 16 wk AFP tests....

I would definately ask your dr. about that. If the sono can show anything wrong, than why do they do the tests?

I know that when my friend got a positive for downs on the AFP and declined the amnio, they sent her for several 4D sonos and stuff like that. I don't know if it is the same for spina bfida. But, I could be wrong. The best thing to do is ask your doc any questions you have. i know that when I was up to that point different sites had different info.