Patient's question:
I've been in school for a long time, and then due to academic and family reasons, I finally found a match for marriage. Now I'm already an older mother. Yesterday, the results of the prenatal screening showed high risk, and I'm sad that the child might be mentally disabled. What should I do?Doctor's answer:
The current situation is that an ultrasound screening for Down syndrome is being performed after pregnancy, which is typically done around the 15th week of pregnancy. This test only suggests the possibility of having a 21 or 18-13 trisomy syndrome. Given this high risk, as you mentioned, the child has a relatively higher chance of having intellectual disabilities. Therefore, further testing is necessary, specifically an amniocentesis to confirm the diagnosis. Wishing the patient a speedy recovery!