Father: I don't know. I mean - certainly, I mean, from what I remember we discussed it and we didn't just discuss the test. I mean I think for both of us the point of it is not the test itself. It's what the test, what you're hoping to find out, really. And I guess we both felt that if it found abnormalities, anomalies, what would we do about it anyway?
And we came to the conclusion, I think separately, and we - luckily I suppose - agreed that, well, we wouldn't do anything, and would take it as it comes. And also in my mind, a blood test, even though it's simpler than a scan, is more invasive in a way, really, and seems to - I guess so I associate the scan with just a routine check, and you can see the baby and everything. In a way it seems less of an, a sort of purposeful investigation, whereas the blood test, you know, is a deliberate, “Let's find out if the baby has Down's”.
Mother: I guess also it's taken out of your hands to a degree by - well for - I suppose it isn't for some people - but even more so for us by twenty weeks, in that you think by that point I certainly wouldn't have considered doing anything about any abnormality that was found. But yes it is, I guess you're more, there seemed to be more of a choice sort of surrounding blood tests or other tests that you may have chosen to have.
Whereas the twenty-week scan, I don't think I was ever, you know, made to have it or, you know, it wasn't sort of “This is where we go next”. It was, it just, certainly the first time, seemed more of a routine part of pregnancy. And then because I had to have a scan later on I just felt, oh, it was helpful to have a baseline from which to see if there was any change at all.
And certainly this time round it was helpful in that I've had to have a scan because they were worried about growth retardation and so it was quite helpful to know that we were still going along the same path, that the baby was the same size in terms of weeks as it had been when I'd first, first been scanned.
Father: I think in my mind, the scan, the twenty-week scan was sort of a routine thing like your first, your sort of booking appointment with the midwife. It just seemed, you know, just something you did, whereas the blood tests and everything seemed more than that. It did seem more, you know, investigative, and there's no reason why that is, but I think that's just what was in my mind - that, you know, you're pregnant, go and see the GP, book in with the midwife, scan. |
