Approximately 700,000 women in the UK become pregnant each year. More than 95% of these pregnancies will result in the birth of a healthy baby.
In a small proportion of pregnancies there are problems which affect the development of the baby.
Antenatal screening is offered to all pregnant women to allow assessment for conditions which may affect the pregnancy and baby.
If the offer of antenatal screening is taken, and the screening tests suggest a pregnancy is at increased risk of a problem, the mother may be offered prenatal diagnostic tests, which may involve chorionic villus sampling or amniocentesis.
Antenatal screening can determine the likelihood in early pregnancy of the baby being affected by a range of genetic or chromosomal disorders, or infectious diseases,
Parents need to be aware that screening is currently only available for a relatively small number of conditions that may affect the baby.
Antenatal screening programmes
Antenatal screening programmes include:
- Down’s syndrome screening,
- fetal anomaly screening by ultrasound,
- haemoglobinopathy screening, and
- screening for infectious diseases (HIV, hepatitis B, syphilis and rubella)
Antenatal screening links
Useful information for patients:
Antenatal results and choices
