Fast forward, then, to today. Darrick and I decided to have a voluntary 1st trimester test done, called the Nuchal Translucency scan. It's an in-depth ultrasound, which you can read about here, as well as a complementary blood test. Neither the ultrasound nor the blood screening can tell you 100% for certain whether your child is going to have Down Syndrome, Trisomy 13, or Trisomy 18. They are simply screening tests which factor in several variables and give you a breakdown of what the chances are your baby harbors one of those diseases.
I've been told I'm not your typical homebirther, because most moms in my situation opt out of the test. Many cite its inconclusive nature, some the cost, others the fact it wouldn't change what they would do with the pregnancy (I can only assume they mean they would not terminate a pregnancy if the baby is determined to have high probability of one of these diseases). We, however, are believers in using the technology available to us in order to learn the most we can about this baby, and prepare ourselves in whatever way WE feel appropriate for the birth of this child. We knew we were not the 'typical' homebirthers in this sense, if for no other reason than our midwife has never had a client who asked for a referral for this testing. But who needs typical? I say...women and their partners should do what works for them!
All that said, today we went in for the ultrasound and accompanying bloodwork. And more than anything, all those 'twins' comments must have infected my psyche, because the first question I asked was not, "Does the baby look ok?"...it was, "There's only ONE in there, right???". And there was only one, so hooray for that!!
Anyhow, we have no real results for now, so I'll save that news for when we have some actual news to share. But we did get pictures....so I'm going to share some here. I fully expect that the only people who will be able to decipher these are other parents, but that's ok with me!
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