[in_cahoots]

I was in this exact situation. I received a phone call from my midwives, saying that my son had tested positive for one of these disorders, and that these tests aren’t usually wrong. Fortunately I had done my research and knew that the false positive rate is high. But the entire system is set up to provide a terrible experience.

Your results are sent directly to your provider, so you can’t read the fine print yourself. And if you do get access to the results, the wording implies that a null result (not enough DNA collected) actually means you’re likely to have some disorder. In fact the wording here actually got worse in the three years between my two (healthy) births.

Ideally these companies should require genetic counseling before you take the test. Parents should understand that these tests are for screening purposes only, and that a definitive diagnosis can’t be gotten until 16-20 weeks. Unfortunately these companies have found a niche- parents wanting to know the sex and health of their children as soon as possible- and have no real reason to improve their practices.