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testing for cystic fibrosis ??
does anyone know if there is such a test for during pregnancy?
my husbands nephew has the condition, and my husbands brother and sister are both carriers of the condition (so its possible my husband is too altho hes never been tested).
we would love and want the baby no matter what but i think id want to be prepared as it can be life threatening and dont think id be able to cope with finding out later on, and would rather be mentally prepared.
has anyone gone thru tests for this? or does anyone have experience of anyone with the conditon and knows the likelihood that our baby will have it? thanks
my husbands nephew has the condition, and my husbands brother and sister are both carriers of the condition (so its possible my husband is too altho hes never been tested).
we would love and want the baby no matter what but i think id want to be prepared as it can be life threatening and dont think id be able to cope with finding out later on, and would rather be mentally prepared.
has anyone gone thru tests for this? or does anyone have experience of anyone with the conditon and knows the likelihood that our baby will have it? thanks
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Replies
My sister had Cf and i'm a carrier. There is now a test for CF in pregnancy but you have to have it at 16 weeks. I'm not sure where you live but most areas now test for CF on the Heel prick test that they do on all baby's at 7 days.
i am just a worrier in general!!
Obviously many people with cf do have quite normal lives and can live til they are 30 but there are also those with much worse strains. My cousin has a life expectancy of only 13 and is often in hospital with infections. I do not wish to worry you i am just telling you my experience.
Even though you would not consider abortion it is probably worth getting tested to see if you carry it just to put your mind at ease. If you are both carriers you can have the baby tested so that if the baby does have cf you can give birth in a hospital with specialists. All babies are routinely screened for cf at around 5 days old.
does it need special care straight away and so should i really give birth in hospital?
or since it wouldnt be diagnosed til after heel prick test a few days later would it make no difference where i gave birth anyway?
i have appt with consultant on monday and im desperate to ask all these questions. at first, my dilemma was whether to have a home birth or not, which im 90% definite on now, but then becasue of the possibility of cf im unsure whether thats the best thing to do for the baby.
ideally i would still want to give birth at home.
i have as gp appt on tues (first available appt) to ask about getting me tested to see if im a carrier of cf so i might not even be one..but i googled it and it said if i am negative it may be false cause test cant detect certain strains (or whatever is the proper term for it).
so finding out if i am carrier is not accurate anyway unless it says i definitely am a carrier in which case it would be accurate.
this is all so worrying, theres nothing we can do about it anyway, but im just worrying myself over it.
I hope you get the news you are hoping for. Also if your parent is a carrier there is a 2 in 4 chance of being a carrier so if your husbands siblings are both carriers it lessens his chance of being one.