Pregnant with a baby, excited parents-to-be run to the hospital for three days, called “prenatal checkups” to go. But you know what? To give birth to a smart and healthy baby, just check is far from enough, but also must be further “screening”, and even “prenatal diagnosis”. According to Dr. Zhang Jianfang of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, last week I received a “confession” from a new mother who was screened as a high-risk pregnancy seven months ago, and the doctor suspected that her baby had Trisomy 21 (congenital trisomy) and recommended that amniotic fluid be drawn to further confirm the diagnosis. However, Xiao Wang refused the doctor’s suggestion for fear of trauma. Her baby had just been born when doctors determined that it was a child with congenital trisomy 21, which has now been confirmed through further testing. In the case of Trisomy 21, the diagnosis can be 100% confirmed after taking the amniotic fluid of a pregnant woman, and the birth defect can be completely avoided. As a result, she did not accept it, leading to a lifetime of suffering. Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology Chen Biliang introduced, the incidence of birth defects in China is as high as 4% to 6%, coupled with the high total number of births in China, so the number of birth defects is very large. To the incidence rate of about 1/750 of the total number of newborns, “congenital stupid child”, for example, China’s annual increase of about 26,600 cases, each case of “congenital stupid child” will cause 250,000 yuan of the socio-economic burden of the quality of our country’s population, Each case of “congenital stupidity” will cause a social and economic burden of 250,000 RMB, which will have a significant negative impact on the quality of our national population, the development of the national economy, and the stability and development of the society. In addition, prenatal examination is mainly to check whether the fetal position is normal and the physical condition of the fetus through ultrasound, etc. Prenatal screening refers to the screening of pregnant women in the 14-20 weeks of gestation, that is, to extract the blood of pregnant women for quantitative testing, combined with the age of the pregnant woman, and the exact gestational week when the blood is collected, and to apply the computer software to test the risk coefficient of the fetus suffering from certain diseases. Pregnant women with a high risk factor are called “high-risk”, which means that the fetus is more likely to have certain hereditary diseases. The method of prenatal screening is very economical, simple and safe, requiring only 2 ml of venous blood to be drawn from the pregnant woman, and has no effect on the woman or the fetus. In the past three years, our department has completed 14,545 prenatal screenings, screened 1,022 high-risk pregnant women, 690 received amniotic fluid or umbilical cord blood prenatal diagnosis, and diagnosed 42 cases of chromosomal disorders in fetuses. Three cases of chromosomally ill fetuses were detected in our hospital alone. Generally speaking, the first prenatal screening at 9-13 weeks (around 2 months and 10 days) for pregnant women, which is mainly a blood test, and the second screening at 11-14 weeks (around 3 months), which is mainly an ultrasound test, are the key periods for early diagnosis of major birth defects diseases in the fetus. At 15-20 weeks, the third screening is conducted; at 18-24 weeks, the fourth screening is conducted, in which the whole body of the fetus is meticulously examined for organ diseases from beginning to end by ultrasound. Prenatal screening is not a confirmatory test; a prenatal diagnosis is needed to know if the fetus is sick. After screening, about 12-15% of pregnant women are considered to be at high risk and require further prenatal diagnosis. Our department has been performing prenatal diagnosis for more than 20 years and is recognized by the medical community for accuracy and safety, “With the rapid advancement in prenatal diagnostic techniques, the number of methods to obtain fetal tissue has increased, including chorionic villus puncture, umbilical cord blood puncture, and fetoscopic techniques in addition to amniocentesis.” Chorionic villus puncture is used in early pregnancy (11-14 weeks); amniocentesis is used from 16-23 weeks of gestation; and cordocentesis is performed after 20 weeks of gestation to obtain umbilical cord blood by puncture for genetic testing. The accuracy of detecting fetal chromosomal abnormalities with amniocentesis is over 98%. However, any interventional test carries some risk, and amniocentesis is no exception, but the risk rate is very low, with about 0.2% of miscarriage complications. Our department is the only one in the Northwest that can perform amniotic fluid, chorionic villus, and cord blood prenatal diagnostic techniques. Since all punctures are now done under ultrasound guidance, the possibility of damage to the fetus is minimal. A combination of prenatal checkups and prenatal screenings will ensure that your baby is healthy and adorable!