Anyone had amniocentesis when pregnant with twins?

pickle

I had an amnio with both my pregnancies as I wanted to rule out any potential disabilities. It was not much worse than a blood test to be honest. Just don't watch the needle is my advice. I guess the question is: what if you don't have it?

Gingham_Ribbon

pickle wrote: »

I guess the question is: what if you don't have it?

I asked myself that question too. And I asked myself, 'what if I have it and it causes me to miscarry?' The risks were too high for me.

heavenleigh

Hi hun,
It's not the same but i had cvs screening done with my last child (now a happy and contented 5 month old)
Cvs is pretty much the same as an amnio, only they take a piece of the placenta to biopsy it.
The procedure itself was fine, not painful at all ( i chose not to look at the needle) They didnt take a big enough sample the first time so i had to go through it twice in one day.
Ask your consultant what the miscarriage rate at your designated hospital has been in the lat year, this should give you a better idea of the risks involved to you rather than looking at a national statistics.
Also it s important to keep calm and still during the procedure as this is a very precise test in a very small space.
The worst part of the whole thing was waiting for the results, the fast tracked results looking for missing or extra chromosomes took 48 hours, this rules out downs, edwards and a couple of other things but the main result checking every individual chromosome pair takes around 14 days.
The decision is completely yours and which every way you decide to go, i'm sure will be the right choice for you xx

clairec79

OK the difference with an amnio with twins is you have more resultant options to consider.

1) you have the amnios (same procedure but you have it twice) it causes you to miscarry (and likelihood is you would miscarry both babies - because once you go into labour it's very unlikely the other twin can hang in there)

2) you have the amnios - you don't miscarry and both babies are 'normal'

3) you have the amnios - you don't miscarry and both babies are 'abnormal' (as in chromosonally) you can then decide whether to procede with the pregnancy or not

4) you have the amnios - you don't miscarry and ONE of the babies is normal, one abnormal - you then have to decide about fetocide - but you'll have to carry the dead baby for the rest of your pregnancy

What I have known women do if they say they'll continue with the pregnancy but want to know is to hold off on the amnio till 32 weeks, that way if you do go into labour the baby (babies in your case) have a good chance to survive (at 18 weeks or so they wouldn't have any)

If you do decide to have it done, ask for the persons doing it individual stats not the units - I know locally exactly who I would want to do it as he has half the miscarriage rate compared to average

chmmy

The forums on www.twinsclub.co.uk are really useful.

pickle

Gingham_Ribbon wrote: »

I asked myself that question too. And I asked myself, 'what if I have it and it causes me to miscarry?' The risks were too high for me.

Sure, for some people that is a risk too high. The place I had the amnio at was a 1 in 300 chance of miscarriage so I was prepared to take that risk as the risk of Down's was 1 in 68 for me. I had already had two miscarriages naturally (ie. without amnio) so it was something to consider. I have no issue with anyone who chooses otherwise, it is a highly personal decision as other people cannot live the consequences for you.