Amniocentesis

                Amniocentesis is a procedure that allows a pregnant mother to be tested for certain kinds of child birth defects. Every human is born with 46 chromosomes which make up their DNA. 23 from the father and 23 from the mother. However, when babies are born with more or less chromosomes, it suffers from a certain genetic defect as a result of the chromosome abnormality. One of these is down syndrome. Women above the age of 35 are encouraged to get 'Amnio's. Basically, they stuck a needle into my belly, into the placenta's water pouch where the baby is and extracted one ounce (two tablespoons) of liquid. That liquid contains samples of the baby's skin which contains DNA information on the baby. That's what get's tested. The results come within one to ten days. The ultrasound is on while it's being done to make sure the baby doesn't get poked with the needle. It felt like a sharp ant bite when the needle went in but besides that, it wasn't really painful and didn't take more than one minute.
                I asked the doctor today if Amnios are commonly requested by patients. He said no. Then he told me something interesting. He said his patients on the east coast (eg. New York) are very adamant about doing Amnios but the further west of the USA, the more people don't care to do Amnios and are more apt to 'go with the flow'. And Hawaii is very much on the west of the country and are even more laid back. If the baby is known to have a birth defect, they would deal with it when it was born, since it would most likely just add mental stress to a situation they cannot change. I also learnt that the latest time an abortion can be conducted is in the 22nd month in Hawaii. Every state is different.
                He said there was an instance when a couple chose to do an Amnio and found out that the baby would not survive long after birth. The baby in fact only lived for six hours before dying. The family were prepared for it and were grateful for the precious few hours to spend with the baby. Another family chose not to know. When their baby died soon after birth, they were angry because they did not expect to have so little time and felt cheated. Sometimes in life, the biggest question we will have to ask ourselves is, "To know or not to know?".