A simple blood test is transforming the world of prenatal screening, offering women a risk-free way to learn about fetal abnormalities early in pregnancy. Already, the new test has dramatically ...

Amniocentesis is the most commonly prescribed invasive test performed during pregnancies in the United States. Researchers at Mount School of Medicine in conjunction with other institutions in the ...

I remember 15 years ago, my colleagues and I in high risk obstetrics were discussing the future possibility of analyzing fetal cells in maternal blood. Back then, the task seemed daunting since there ...

The standard test for screening fetuses for genetic abnormalities, amniocentesis, involves sticking a needle through the mother's abdomen and into the uterus. It causes a miscarriage in about one in ...

Amniocentesis is a diagnostic procedure in which a small amount of amniotic fluid is removed from the sac of amniotic fluid around the baby inside the uterus, to test for certain chromosomal anomalies ...

Q: I've had trouble getting pregnant and finally succeeded at the age of 37. Everyone says I should get an amniocentesis, but I'm afraid it will cause a miscarriage. What should I do? A: First, let me ...

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The blood test is said to be 99 percent accurate and would replace the amniocentesis test, whereby a large needle is inserted into the stomach to extract a small sample of amniotic fluid from the womb ...

In science news today, there is a new prenatal test that has shown great promise for detecting more chromosomal abnormalities that could lead to problems like autism and mental retardation in fetuses.