Do I need to fast for Down syndrome screening?

Regular prenatal check-ups are very important for both the pregnant woman and the fetus. Performing Down syndrome screening at a certain time can effectively understand the condition of the fetus and screen for some more dangerous diseases. Before doing Down syndrome screening, you should also pay attention, but fasting examination is generally not required. Below, the editor will introduce some precautions for pregnant women before checking Down syndrome screening.

Down syndrome screening is an abbreviation for prenatal screening test for Down syndrome. The purpose is to determine the risk of the fetus suffering from Down syndrome by testing the pregnant woman's blood. If the Down screening test results show that the fetus is at a higher risk of suffering from Down syndrome, further confirmatory tests should be carried out.

Children with Down syndrome are not exclusive to older pregnant mothers, although older pregnant mothers over 35 years old are closely related to Down syndrome, that is, the older the mother, the greater the chance of giving birth to a child with Down syndrome. However, young women may also give birth to children with Down syndrome, which is accidental.

Clinically, only 20% of Down syndrome cases occur in older pregnant mothers, and the other 80% of Down syndrome children are born to young pregnant mothers under 35 years old. Therefore, both young and older pregnant mothers need to undergo Down syndrome screening.

Down syndrome screening refers to a special examination method. It is aimed at specific people who do not have any corresponding disease indicators (such as all pregnant women). Through the examination, high-risk people who are more likely to suffer from a certain disease are screened out for subsequent diagnostic examinations. One thing that needs to be made clear is that the purpose of screening is not to diagnose a certain disease, but to screen out people who are more likely to have a certain disease.

Unlike general physical examinations involving liver function, Down syndrome screening does not require fasting. Recently, I found that some sisters are not very clear whether they need to fast. This is mainly because the Down syndrome screening is abbreviated as "Down screening", which is very similar to another word "sugar screening" and sounds exactly the same. However, unlike Down syndrome screening, sugar screening is used to screen for gestational diabetes. It is usually done at 24 weeks and requires fasting for 12 hours. Therefore, if you have any doubts or are confused, you might as well ask your doctor which test order is prescribed for you.

When a woman is pregnant, in addition to regular prenatal checkups, she should also try to do some moderate exercise, which is also very beneficial for the healthy development of the fetus. When some physical conditions occur, you should go to the hospital for examination in time to minimize the damage to the fetus.