Amniocentesis, Part I

Today Scott and I had an amniocentesis. It was a pretty nerve-wracking experience.

First of all, we were worried that our insurance was ultimately not going to cover it. Two days before the procedure, we got word from our insurance company that it would not cover an amnio unless the doctor deemed it a "medical necessity" in the paper work. We had never been told in those terms that it was a "necessity" so to speak. Our doctors and geneticist had simply explained that we faced high risks for having a genetically "flawed" baby, especially given our "advanced" ages (particular mine) over 35. We were told that the amnio was developed for parents in our "high risk" category of "advanced age" in order to determine that the state of health of our unborn baby. When I reported this to the insurance agency, I was told that this type of explanation did not clarify if the amnio was a "medical necessity." Making matters worse, the agent on the line emphasized to me that he could NOT guarantee that our insurance would reimburse any of the costs whatsoever.

How frustrating!!! (Someone could dedicate a whole blog to this topic of how obnoxious the insurance companies really are - but that will sidetrack me too much to start going off here, and now)

So anyway, to make a long story "short," we finally cleared that problem up with a few more phone calls and discussions. Finally we determined that on the insurance front, everything was probably going to be okay.

The second major quandary that we faced was stressing out about the safety of our fetus... (and even though the amnio is over now (and I feel fine) we're not quite out of the woods on this one yet.) Just yesterday a new acquaintance (with a newborn of 6 months) was telling me that she refused to have an amnio done - even though she was 41. She had had an experience witnessing a friend miscarry after having an amnio, and that had scarred her terribly. That was enough to make her decide not to put her own pregnancy in the same sort of jeopardy.

She kept asking me WHY I was going along with the amnio given the increased risk of miscarriage.

Personally, hearing about her friend's miscarriage immediately following her amnio just scared me to death. I started to really debate what exactly was the "medical necessity" of this procedure on various fronts - not just from the financial point of view of getting our insurance coverage.

I'm still not 100% decided on the answer to this. Should I have really put the pregnancy at risk - espeically knowing that our preliminary test results had been positive - and that neither Scott nor I had any major histories of genetic problems in our families. We thought about postpoining the amnio, so that we could deliberate the issues a bit longer. But we new that there was only a short window during the pregnancy when an amnio could be done at all. If we missed that window, then it would be too late. Finally, Scott and I decided to go ahead with the procedure anyway and to just try to keep as positive an outlook as possible.

More tomorrow on what the procedure was actually like - ugh!