Patient's question:
Do you need to book early for the Down syndrome screening? Recently, I want to do prenatal care and want to consult whether I need to book early for the Down syndrome screening or if I can just go to the hospital directly to do it?Doctor's answer:
The Down syndrome screening is one of the essential prenatal screening items for Down syndrome prenatal screening. Down syndrome screening requires blood extraction from the pregnant woman, followed by the analysis of maternal serum to identify high-risk pregnant women for fetal non-diploid 21-trisomy and 18-trisomy syndromes. This can be decided by booking in advance or going directly to the hospital. It is recommended to screen between weeks 15 and 20 of pregnancy. Provincial hospitals or tertiary hospitals generally require early booking, while regular hospitals do not necessarily need early reservations.