no. but spina bifida is a terrible disease. research it really well!
i've had positive terminal illness tests and have terminated my pregnancies. did you have that afp test for spina bifida as well?

I am being referred to a genetic councilor and will hopefully see them in about a week or 2. They will give us some ultrasounds that are more focused on the spine, and will be able to tell us for sure if the baby has it or not, and also to what degree. It was the AFP test that I had. Even if the baby does have SB, we will keep our baby and take care of it to the best of our abilities. This is our miracle baby and we love it no matter what.

God will not bring you to what He cannot bring you through. my older cousin married about 4 years ago and adopted his wife's older daughters. the youngest of the 2 had a positive SB test and she was born with a hole in her spine. when my cousin and his wife got pregnant, their little girl tested positive for a hole in the heart, spine, or brain. the doc recommended termination. they chose to keep her and she was born perfectly healthy. theyre not definite positive or negative screenings, they give you a percentage chance of something being wrong with a baby.

another woman i know has a beautiful baby girl. i cant help but smile when i see her. during her third tri, the u/s showed cysts on her brain and she was told she would miscarry. obviously not, shes a beautiful, smiling little girl. she does have some skin discolorations that will fade and a heart condition that is easily treated with medication. she is a strong girl and was holding her weight on her feet at two months. doctors are wonderful people, dont get me wrong, but they can't know everything.

just pray.

on a side note- we chose to pass on the testing for any diseases. we went through a year of fertilty treatments before conceving. we were going to take what God gave us.

I didn't want the testing at first either, but my doc said that their are certain things that, if caught early, can be treated in utero, so we decided to go for it. I'm glad we did, because if the baby does have SB, we will have time to prepare and learn about it.

taking what God gives you isn't always the best choice. sometimes it's the most selfish one. in my case my tests were 100% positive for a terminal illness. i would rather terminate my baby then look him in the eye and tell him YES i knew you were going to die by the age of 26.

but spina bifida is more managable i'm sure. and i don't want to knock you and i didn't imply that you shoudl terminate your baby at all! i wouldn't judge you either way... i wish people were the same with me but unfortunately they are not. i wish you all the best of luck with your further testing and will keep you in my thoughts!!!

I hate to say this but sometimes...not always...but sometimes GOD DOES give you what you cant handle....maybe not in this particular case...and I PRAY FOR YOU AND YOUR BABY with every bit of my being THAT THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE CASES....I pray that you will go to your genetic counselor and get all the positive news that you can get. i pray that you hear that you WILL BE ABLE to take care of your baby, I pray that this was just a blip...a mistake in the test. BUT for some of us there just is NO other choice. I PRAY THAT YOU WILL HAVE A CHOICE.


On a side note...we chose not to have any of the testing either...but I will say we make plans and God laughs.

I am 19 wks pregnant and I'm also 36 years old and I told my Dr. I didn't want the test be #1 they can come through as false positives and then you get yourself worked up and nothing at all is wrong and then you could terminate and that baby would have been perfect. #2 it would not matter to us that something might be wrong. But if you get a positive you can get an extensive U/S and find out for sure. Good luck

I'm so sorry you're going through this. I have never been in your shoes but my mom tested positive for SB with my older brother. She decided not to terminate, and he came out just fine. However, a few years ago he had xrays for some back pain he'd been having and he does in fact have SB, but a VERY minor form of it. He's 31 now, so it took quite a while to even affect him. I don't know what the long term effects are, but he's 31 now and as far as I know it isn't debilitating in any way. I hope that gives you some hope :)

A friend of mine found out when she was 5-6 months pregnant that her baby had SB. He is now a year old and although he has had some minor problems, he is only a couple months behind where he should be on the 1st year Milestones. He is a very happy baby & although his mommy struggles sometimes, she loves him just as much as her other children. And... he's adorable!

Also, keep in mind these tests have a lot of false positives, everything may be just fine. Big hugs to you & I will keep you all in my prayers!

Thank you for all of your replies everyone. I am going to call the genetic councilor today to see when we can get in.

I'd say 69 in 70 chance that the baby is fine are good odds. I wouldn't worry too much until you know more.

Hi There, At 16 weeks my AFP numbers came back elevated and they said there was a chance that the baby had spina bifida. I had an special ultrasound at the perinatal clinic at 16 and 20 weeks, and just had another yesterday (24 weeks) and the baby does NOT have spina bifida. There are lots of reasons why your AFP numbers could be elevated, and many times it's for no reason. In my case, it turns out that it was that a part of my placenta is a little "ragged", which isn't causing any problems for me or baby. I know it's easy to say, but please try not to worry at this point. I was a wreck, and feel badly about all the stress I probably put on my baby from all that worrying! They won't be able to tell you definitively until 20 weeks about whether baby has it or not, but until then try to breath easy because our genetic counselor told us (and all my research confirmed) that in most of these cases it ends up being nothing. Good luck!