Modern medicine has made sure that your pregnancy is a lot more transparent.
There is of course the way you can determine whether it's going to be a boy or girl; you can also determine who the father is, and test for all kinds of genetic diseases that occur in a pregnancy to the fetus.
If only rarely.
Of course more insight into the development of fetus sometimes opens expectant parents up to many more questions and sources of anxiety than it solves.
Because prenatal testing gives parents the option to abort the pregnancy.
Unlike most other tests though, testing done when the development of fetus is ongoing is not a painless procedure.
Some tests can actually put the developing baby at risk.
How does your doctor help you determine if a test is really worth the risk that it presents? Take away amniocentesis works.
That's a prenatal test they recommend to women who are over 35 and pregnant.
Doctors are beginning to realize that they were wrong all along about recommending it to women over 35.
The amniocentesis test is something the doctors do to try to predict if the baby has Down's syndrome or other genetic diseases.
They insert a needle into the uterus and extract amniotic fluid to test.
A problem here is that amniocentesis places the baby at risk of miscarriage.
Should you really risk the life of a baby for more knowledge on the infinitesimal chance that the baby has a serious disease? Doctors usually perform this test on women over 35 is a matter of routine.
And almost never on women who are younger.
At first glance, the rule does seem to make sense.
We've always been told that women over 35 are at risk of having babies with Down syndrome.
This is how doctors arrive at telling you that you need to get amniotic done at the age of 35 and over.
The risk of miscarriage through amnio at any age is 1 in 200.
The risk of Down syndrome and a baby when you become pregnant over the age of 35 is greater than 1 and 200.
So they feel they should give you the choice that has the lower risk.
Ever since the 70s when this was first promoted, everyone's been repeating this nonstop.
The problem is that the Association of Obstetricians has revised its rule.
Now, they want doctors to offer the test to every pregnant woman.
Because younger women who aren't as much at risk of carrying a baby with Down Syndrome still are some risk.
And they would really really want to know and terminate the pregnancy.
And older women who may feel it is their last chance for a baby, if they get the test done and it harms the development of fetus, would be devastated.
Make sure that you remind your doctor that it is now official medical policy that every woman should get an amnio.