I can not believe that I am already 28 weeks pregnant! It won’t be too much longer until our little one arrives.

For today’s visit, I had to have testing to see if I have gestational diabetes.  For this test, you will be asked to drink an incredibly sweet drink.  You’ll have to wait an hour, and then blood will be drawn to see how well your body is processing the sugar.

This is my 6th test as this is my 6th child.  I have discovered that the fruit punch flavor actually tastes the best.  My least favorite flavor was the orange flavor.  I’ve also discovered that the liquid tastes better if it is chilled.

It’s important to follow all of your doctor’s instructions to the letter when preparing for this test.  My doctor had told me to only drink water this morning and to eat only protein for breakfast.  I did as I was told to do, but another woman didn’t follow the instructions.  They actually refused to do the test on her and told her she had to re-schedule.

While I was waiting for time to pass, the nurse handed me a hospital pre-admission paper which he was going to have the hospital process.  That way, he explained, I wouldn’t have to worry about paperwork when I was in labor.  As I was filling out the paperwork, I got a little bit scared when I realized that I am REALLY having a baby.Â

I had to call my husband and cry.  My husband is very practical and was clearly dumbfounded: hadn’t I known for 6 months that I was having a kid?  Why was I so frantic at this moment?  Maybe it was all the sugar in that drink I said.

After taking several vials of blood to run the diabetes test, the midwife measured my stomach and listened for our son’s heartbeat. She asked about any complications I might be experiencing and weighed me.  My next appointment is in 3 weeks.

I’m curious to find out what other moms to be think about the diabetes test.  What was your favorite drink flavor?  Did you like your drink chilled or room temperature?

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute announced today that their researchers, together with others at Stanford University have developed a new test that can accurately detect Down Syndrome (or the so-called Trisomy 21) as well as two other chromosomal aberrations that can cause serious birth defects.

Currently, two methods are mainly used in prenatal diagnostics to detect chromosomal defects in the unborn baby: amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling (CVS). These two methods require removing amniotic fluid by inserting a needle into the mother’s uterus. Although considered more or less safe, these methods are however invasive and present a small risk of miscarriage. The advantages of this new technique are:

1. Non-invasive
2. Risk-free
3. Can be conducted early in the pregnancy
4. Will end up to be cheaper

The idea is based on the fact that small amounts of fetal DNA are found in the mother’s blood. However, it has been a problem to find these small amounts of DNA considering that they occur in mommy’s blood at about 1 baby DNA to a million of mommy DNA. However, by using a shortcut “shotgun” approach that tested for both baby and mommy DNA, the researchers were able to overcome this obstacle.

The blood test has been has successfully demonstrated in 18 pregnant women who also underwent amniocentesis or CVS. The results of the new test completely matched those of the two conventional tests and identified 12 of the 18 pregnant women carrying babies with chromosomal defects. In addition, a man was also blood-tested for reference.

This promising test, however, is not ready to be used as standard test until proven and tested in studies involving larger numbers (thousands!) of participants. This is to make sure of the accuracy of the test considering what is at stake. In another study, European researchers report that the currently used prenatal screening methods (including amniocentesis or CVS) are not 100% accurate. In addition, they can only detect half of chromosome abnormalities (only the trisomoies) that occur in fetuses. Others are not detectable by these methods.

If you are thinking of having amniocentesis or CVS, you might also consider volunteering to participate in the study to confirm this new blood test. It’s just giving a little bit of your blood.

Others may ask, why get tested at all? I’d say, let’s respect each other’s right to choose.