When Can You Get Prenatal Testing?
There are several different reasons that you may want to do prenatal testing with your infant. You may want to find out the parentage of your child or you may want to find out about the genetics or potential abnormalities for your child. The sooner you can do these the better, but how do you know when you can get them done?
Why Get Prenatal Testing Done Early?
First, why do you want to get this type of testing done very early? Why can’t it wait until after the baby is born? Well, there are a number of reasons to get it done quickly. Court orders may require you to find out parentage as early as possible. Or you may have been a victim of assault and want to know the parentage before you have the child.
Maybe you or your partner has a genetic disorder and you want to be sure that it is not passed on to your child. Maybe you need to know if the pregnancy is viable as a result of a genetic abnormality or maybe you want to be able to prepare for the needs of the infant.
All of these reasons make it a good idea to get the testing done as soon as you can.
When Can the Testing Start?
The great news is you don’t have to wait long to get started on prenatal testing. It can actually be done as early as nine weeks into the pregnancy. However, we prefer eleven weeks because there is very little DNA from the baby at that early stage, The advancements in science and technology have even made this testing, done this early, very safe and effective for both the mom and the baby, which means you don’t have to risk your child’s health.
The safest process that you can do is non-invasive testing, which allows blood to be taken directly from the mother and then fetal DNA pulled from that blood test. This is the safest for everyone because it never even approaches the baby. Plus, it’s over 99% accurate, so you don’t have to worry about the results.
The more well-known versions are amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling. Both of these types of testing can be dangerous to the infant, though to varying levels. They also take longer for you to be able to do them because of the type of testing that is used.
Amniocentesis can be performed between 14 weeks and 20 weeks and is generally used for genetics testing rather than DNA because of the higher risk of miscarriage. On the other hand, chorionic villus sampling can be done between 10 and 13 weeks. This also has an increased risk of miscarriage and as a result, is generally only done for genetic testing.
Prenatal Testing at Mobile Drug Screen
If you’re looking to get any type of prenatal testing done, all you need to do is schedule an appointment and we can help you find out everything you need to know. Whether it’s a paternity test or a genetics screening, we have the tools to find out for you quickly and accurately.