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Prenatal Testing

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Prenatal testing is a term that describes many tests that are done during pregnancy. The tests provide information about your health and the health of your developing baby. Prenatal testing includes blood and urine tests and ultrasounds. In some cases, more invasive procedures may be recommended. Invasive tests may include sampling placental tissue, drawing fluid from the amniotic sac, or drawing fetal blood from the umbilical cord.

Prenatal tests can be used to identify many different things, including:

  • Treatable health problems in the mother that can affect the health of the fetus
  • Characteristics of the fetus, including size, age, placement in the uterus, and sex
  • Genetic, or chromosomal problems

In the mother, prenatal tests are used to identify things that could possibly affect the developing fetus, including:

Prenatal tests can screen for many different congenital defects in the fetus, including:

About 250 different birth defects can be diagnosed through prenatal testing. Some can be treated in utero (before birth) or immediately after birth, but the majority cannot. Prenatal testing can be quite complicated. However, prenatal tests do not test for everything, and no prenatal test guarantees the birth of a healthy baby.

Why is prenatal testing performed?What are the different types of prenatal tests?What questions should I ask my doctor about prenatal testing?Where can I get more information about prenatal testing?

Revision Information

  • Reviewer: Andrea Chisholm
  • Review Date: 09/2012 -
  • Update Date: 00/93/2012 -

This content is reviewed regularly and is updated when new and relevant evidence is made available. This information is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with questions regarding a medical condition.

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All rights reserved.

References

  • American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Practice bulletin: invasive prenatal testing for aneuploidy. ACOG. December 2007; No. 88.

  • American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Practice bulletin: screening for fetal chromosomal abnormalities. ACOG. January 2007; No. 77.

  • Bubb JA, Matthews AL. What’s new in prenatal screening and diagnosis? Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice. 2004;31:561-582.

  • Overview: prenatal tests. American Pregnancy Association website. Available at: http://americanpregnancy.org/prenataltesting. Updated July 2003. Accessed October 1, 2012.

  • Pregnancy testing. EBSCO DynaMed website. Available at: https://dynamed.ebscohost.com/about/about-us. Updated June 9, 2010. Accessed October 2, 2012.

  • Prenatal tests. Nemours Foundation. KidsHealth website. Available at: http://kidshealth.org/parent/system/medical/prenatal%5Ftests.html. Updated January 2012. Accessed October 1, 2012.

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