Maternity Screening information
Screening tests in pregnancy
A number of screening tests will be offered to you in your
pregnancy and newborn period. This is to find out if there are any
health conditions that could affect you or your baby.
Occasionally, screening may lead to difficult decisions that
might need to be made in pregnancy. The screening tests that you
will be offered at your first booking appointment with your midwife
are listed below:
- Hepatitis B
- HIV
- Syphilis
- Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia
- First Trimester Combined Screening
- If applicable Quadruple Test
- Second Trimester 18-20+6 week anomaly scan
Screening tests are offered to babies soon after they are born.
Any baby that is found to have a screen positive result can be
referred to specialists and offered appropriate treatment as
quickly as possible. Please see below screening tests that are
offered to your baby:
- Newborn Infant Physical Examination
- Newborn hearing examination
- Newborn Blood Spot
- Pulse Oximetry Test
Before your appointment with the community midwife please watch
the video below or read the Screening
Tests For You and Your Baby leaflet to find out more about the
tests. This is available in
other languages and
easy guides. If you need a leaflet the midwife will provide you
with printed copy at your booking appointment.
The MyPregnancy@StMichaels App is also available for downloading
or you can scan the QR code to access screening information.
https://youtu.be/_afr5olIpTM
(We would like this video to be added to the webpage please)
Please select the following link if you would like the video
with subtitles in English, as well as Arabic, Bengali, Chinese,
French, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian,
Somali and Urdu. https://vimeo.com/showcase/7081234
You will be provided with information relating to these
screening tests and have the opportunity to discuss your screening
choices with the midwife during your antenatal booking appointment.
If you have any other questions regarding screening then please
contact the Screening Midwives on the numbers below.
Infectious diseases
Hepatitis B
This will be a blood test that is offered to you at your booking
appointment with the midwife. Hepatitis B is a virus that affects
the liver and can cause long term illness. It can be passed on in
blood, body fluids and through sexual contact. You will be advised
that your baby has a course of vaccinations in the first year of
their life to reduce the risk of your baby being affected by this
condition. Specialist care will be provided to you throughout your
pregnancy.
HIV
This will be a blood test that is offered to you at your booking
appointment with the midwife. HIV weakens the immune system and
makes it difficult to fight infections. HIV can be passed through
bloods, body fluids, sexual contact, birth and breast feeding.
Specialist care and treatment will be provided during your
pregnancy to reduce the risk of this infection being passed to your
baby.
Syphilis
This is a blood test that is offered to you at your booking
appointment with the midwife. Syphilis is a sexual transmitted
disease which can cause health concerns with your baby if left
untreated. Specialist treatment will be required to reduce this
risk.
Sickle cell and thalassaemia
This will be a blood test that is offered to you at your booking
appointment with the midwife. This is a test to find out if you are
a carrier of the sickle cell or thalassaemia gene which you can
pass onto your baby. If you are a carrier, a midwife will contact
you and offer screening to the father of the baby. To access more
information on different Haemoglobinopathies, please access the
link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/screening-in-pregnancy-information-leaflets
First trimester combined screening (FTCS)
FTCS is a screening test for Down's syndrome, Edwards' syndrome
and Patau's syndrome and is available between 11+2 - 14+1 weeks of
pregnancy. The test can help identify pregnancies where the baby
has a higher chance, greater than 1 in 150, of having one of the
three syndromes.
If you decide to have FTCS, you will have an appointment around
12 weeks of pregnancy where a scan will be performed and you will
have a blood test done that measures two hormones in your blood. At
the scan, the fluid at the back of your baby's neck (called the
nuchal translucency) will be also be measured. Your blood test
results and the nuchal translucency measurement will be used
together with your age to work out the chance of your baby having
Down's syndrome, Edwards' syndrome or Patau's syndrome.
Occasionally, FTCS test is not possible and you will be offered
a Quadruple test in the second trimester by your community midwife.
For example; if you are over 14+1 weeks and the combined test
cannot be offered you will be offered a quadruple test.
The Quadruple test combines four hormone levels with your age to
screen for Down's syndrome only. For those who have quadruple
screening, the 18-20+6 anomaly scan is used to screen for Edwards'
syndrome and Patau's syndrome
FTCS results
If you choose to have this screening then you will receive the
result in figures that tell you how likely it is that your baby has
Down's syndrome, Edwards syndrome or Patau's syndrome. It will be
given to you in the format of "a chance of 1 in XX". The term
'chance' here means the possibility of an event happening. For
example, a chance of 1 in 100 means that out of 100 people with
this specific result, 1 will have a baby with the syndrome and 99
will not.
You will be given one figure for Down's syndrome and one figure
for Edwards' and Patau's syndrome.
If you receive a result that is 1 in 151 and greater in number
this is considered a low chance result and you will receive a
letter in the post within 14 calendar days. You will not be offered
further testing.
If you receive a result that is between 1 in 2 and 1 in 150 this
is considered a high chance result. The screening midwives will
contact youwithin 3 working daysto discuss your result and the
options available to you to have further testing. It is always up
to you to decide after a high chance result whether you would like
to have further testing done.
Non invasive prenatal testing (NIPT)
From the 1st June 2021, women who receive a higher
chance result from a combined (FTCS) or quadruple test which was
taken on or after the 1st June 2021 will be offered
non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT).
NIPT is a blood test that looks at DNA material from the placenta
in the maternal blood stream. The blood test is analysed to
determine the likelihood of the baby having either Down's syndrome,
Edwards syndrome or Patau's syndrome.
NIPT is very sensitive screening test, but it is important to
know that it does not give a definite yes/no answer about whether
the baby has one of the conditions. It will tell you whether it is
'very likely' or 'very unlikely' that you baby has any of the three
syndromes. The test carries no risk to the mother or the baby.
If you receive a screening result that is 1 in 150 or higher,
the screening midwives will discuss the option to have NIPT when
they contact you to discuss result. If you receive an increased
chance result from the NIPT then you will be offered an invasive
diagnostic test to confirm the screening test results. These tests
are called Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS) or Amniocentesis. More
information on both of these tests can be found on the Fetal
Medicine Unit page.
The 20 week anomaly scan
This detailed ultrasound scan, sometimes called the
mid-pregnancy or anomaly scan, is usually carried out when you're
between 18 and 21 weeks pregnant. The 20-week screening scan is
offered to everybody, but you do not have to have it if you do not
want to.
The 20-week screening scan is carried out in the same way as the
12-week scan. It produces a 2D black and white image that gives a
side view of the baby. The NHS screening programme does not use 3D
or colour images.
The 20-week screening scan looks in detail at the baby's bones,
heart, brain, spinal cord, face, kidneys and abdomen. It allows the
sonographer to look for 11 rare conditions. In most cases, the scan
will show that the baby appears to be developing as expected, but
sometimes the sonographer will find or suspect something
different.
For more information on the 20 week scan, the 11 conditions
screened for, please follow the link below:
https://www.nhs.uk/pregnancy/your-pregnancy-care/20-week-scan
If you want to know your baby's sex, you should ask the
sonographer at the start of the scan, so they know that they need
to check.
Scan prints are available to buy at the anomaly scan, at a cost
of £10 for a set (5 prints). Only 1 set can be purchased. There is
a contactless card machine available.
COVID-19
Due to COVID-19, you may bring ONE adult
support person to your scan, however, no children are allowed in
the hospital. Your support person must wait outside the hospital
until you are in the scan room, at which time you can phone them to
come to the department and they will be directed to the appropriate
scan room.
All support persons must wear a mask in the scan room or they
will not be allowed in.
Screening tests after your baby is born
A number of screening tests will be offered to your baby in the
immediate postnatal period. Please watch the below video which
explains these screening tests. If you require the information in a
different language then please contact your community midwife.
Newborn
and infant physical examination (English) - YouTube
For more information scan the QR link to access the newborn
screening leaflets.
For more information on screening tests in your pregnancy
below:
Antenatal results and choices (ARC) is a UK charity that
supports parents throughout antenatal screening: www.arc-uk.org Tel: 0207 713
7486
Contact us:
Between 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday
Weston screening midwives: 01934 647 288
Bristol screening midwives: 0117 342 5708
