When Tanya Lehrman got pregnant at 39, she didn?t want to take any chances. Though she hadn?t even had her first ultrasound yet, because she was older and had miscarried before, she was worried about her risk of having a baby with chromosomal abnormalities, like Down syndrome. But she was also concerned about testing for these issues: Her doctors told her that an amniocentesis?the standard test for chromosomal abnormalities?comes with a small chance of miscarriage. ?We had worked so hard to get to that point that we just wanted to do everything that we could for the safety of the baby,? says the Montreal-based mother.
One doctor suggested she might want to try non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) instead. NIPT is a simple blood test that analyzes the baby?s DNA in the mother?s blood, looking for chromosomal abnormalities. It poses no risk to the baby, is 99 percent accurate and can be done as early as 10 weeks. It?s covered for high-risk moms in British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario and PEI, and is available privately for everyone at a cost of $500 and up. Lehrman, who lives in Quebec, paid $900 when she decided to go ahead with NIPT. About a week later, her doctor told her the test was showing a less than one percent chance for any chromosomal issues. ?I had miscarried at about six weeks the last time, so I just wanted to do everything to prevent that from happening again,? she explains. ?[The results] gave me peace of mind.?
NIPT became available in 2013, and ...