Luckily we were in a financial position to have a nuchal scan undertaken privately and complementing blood tests, which concluded i had a 1 in 3000 chance of having a baby with Down’s syndrome. We had a wonderful consultant and we had the results with 36 hours of attending his clinic. He assured me on no terms did i need an amniocentesis and to ignore any medical practitioner who said otherwise. This news was such a relief especially after the doomsday prognosis our local hospital had given us.

It was my great pleasure to call the hospital up to tell them i would not be coming for my next scan with them, that I had undergone a nuchal scan privately and my risk was minimal and he advised against any further investigation. Yet again the hospital failed to surprise me, the Trunchbull commented ‘well you could still be that 1 in 3000, so i would consider a aminocentisis’. WHAT!! I sharply informed her i would take the consultants opinion over hers, any anyone with a shred of a mathematical knowledge would know what 1 in 3000 risk far outweighs the 1 in 200 risk of miscarriage from an amniocentesis. To this day i still think my hospital have some annual amniocentesis quota to fulfill, however baby and I had no intention of helping them meet their targets.

From my experience there are stark contrasts between the quality of antenatal care women receive in different centers. I am now under a consultant under in a different hospital for my final few months and there is no comparison to the other hospital i attended, even though they are in the same Partnership. The staff are friendly and have made me feel completely at ease in this hospital. Although, I have been unlucky to receive poor antenatal care, I am aware that this is not common practice and I am sure some women will probably praise the hospital that I won’t set foot into. My only advice to women is to question everything the specialists say to you, they are not God and they don’t know everything. At the end of the day its your body and your baby, don’t allow yourself to be bullied into a procedure that isn’t completely necessary. If you’re still not happy then ask to see another midwife/consultant for a second opinion.

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