I just found out yesterday that I am pregnant with my third child. My first two daughters that are now 6 and 4 have classic cf. I did not know that my first child had cf until my second was born. I do the daily tasks of taking care of them, I homeschool them, and the other duties of any other mom. I wondered if anyone has been pregnant after having a cf child and if there was testing available while the baby is in the womb to see if it has CF. No matter what I will have this baby, but I just want to be prepared (if thats even possible). I have had mixed responses from family and that is hard to deal with because I am very excited. I am determined to enjoy this pregnancy and this baby no matter what anyone says! Also if anyone has any advice on dealing with the ATTITUDE of other people about me being pregnant, advice is welcome here.
pregnant /have 2 cfers already
- Thread starter anonymous
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I am almost positive there is a test to see if the fetus has CF. I remeber in my Bio class they actually showed a woman getting her fetus tested for CF. It was the proceduer that they use the needle through the belly...I can't remember the name, but know it is common for woman over 35. Sorry I know I am not much help, but I just wanted to say that there is a test for it. I hope that your new baby does not have CF, but like you said no matter what this is an amazing gift and this baby will bring you so much joy regardless of his/her health. Good luck with your new baby.
First of all - I want to say CONGRATULATIONS! I am a mother of three children. I found out that my oldest son had CF when he was just about to turn two-years-old and my daughter was eight months old. To make a long story short, we decided to have a third child. I am a person who needs as much information as possible so we decided to test for CF in the womb. We talked about our options with our OB and then later with a genetic counselor. At the time I was pregnant, we had two options. The first was something called CVS - basically they take a small sample of your placentia around the nine week time frame. From that sample, they can do genetic testing and tell you if the baby has CF or not. We went in for our test, but they couldn't do it that day because my baby was right in front of the placentia and the risks were too high. I think (from what I remember) the benefits of this test is that they can do it at an earlier stage (and thus know sooner), plus I also think you get your results back fairly quickly (in about a week or so). Because of our baby's position, we ended up doing an early amnio. The benefits of this test is that there is a slightly smaller risk to your baby doing this test vs. the CVS and you also (if you wish) can find out the sex of the baby 
The down side to this test is that you need to wait until you are at least fourteen weeks pregnant and the entire test results take about four-five weeks to get which is a very long wait. The reason for this is because they actually have to collect and then harvest the fetus's cells in order to do the gentic teting on them. I was fourteen weeks pregnant when I had my amnio done and I found out my results the exact day I turned twenty weeks pregnant. I won't kid you - the wait was a long hard one. And I agree with you, I think the wait was made even harder because of "mixed attitudes." I also was so excited about this baby and wanted it to be a celebration. I think if you are very clear about your feeling about this pregnancy; hopefully others with respect your wishes and feelings. I actually never had to say anything about this pregnancy; but I did express myself very clearly during my second pregnancy. My oldest son was only seven months old when we found out that we were pregnant again. For some reason, everyone thought that this was more of a joke than a celebration. A few others also made it their mission to tell me how hard it was going to be raising two babies at the same time and that the children were "just too close in age." I was furious - but I just calmly told that individual that I was very excited about this baby and that this baby was very wanted. I also told that person that I also was scared about having two children so close in age and I knew that I had my work cut out for me. However, I felt that I was up to the task and that I would really appreciate everyone's support.I hope that you get all the support that you need regarding this new pregnancy. As one mother to another, I am very excited for you. Please let us know how everything goes for you. If you need someone to chat to - I would be happy to be there for you. My email is robertnkatrina@attbi.comOh - by the way. My results came back that we were going to have a little baby girl without CF. I wish lots of health and happiness for your new little one. Allison is now a happy, healthy 21-month old. She is one of my greatest joys and I can't imagine my life without her.
The down side to this test is that you need to wait until you are at least fourteen weeks pregnant and the entire test results take about four-five weeks to get which is a very long wait. The reason for this is because they actually have to collect and then harvest the fetus's cells in order to do the gentic teting on them. I was fourteen weeks pregnant when I had my amnio done and I found out my results the exact day I turned twenty weeks pregnant. I won't kid you - the wait was a long hard one. And I agree with you, I think the wait was made even harder because of "mixed attitudes." I also was so excited about this baby and wanted it to be a celebration. I think if you are very clear about your feeling about this pregnancy; hopefully others with respect your wishes and feelings. I actually never had to say anything about this pregnancy; but I did express myself very clearly during my second pregnancy. My oldest son was only seven months old when we found out that we were pregnant again. For some reason, everyone thought that this was more of a joke than a celebration. A few others also made it their mission to tell me how hard it was going to be raising two babies at the same time and that the children were "just too close in age." I was furious - but I just calmly told that individual that I was very excited about this baby and that this baby was very wanted. I also told that person that I also was scared about having two children so close in age and I knew that I had my work cut out for me. However, I felt that I was up to the task and that I would really appreciate everyone's support.I hope that you get all the support that you need regarding this new pregnancy. As one mother to another, I am very excited for you. Please let us know how everything goes for you. If you need someone to chat to - I would be happy to be there for you. My email is robertnkatrina@attbi.comOh - by the way. My results came back that we were going to have a little baby girl without CF. I wish lots of health and happiness for your new little one. Allison is now a happy, healthy 21-month old. She is one of my greatest joys and I can't imagine my life without her.I am a 35 year old, stay at home Mom with CF. There are 2 tests that can be done to screen the baby for CF. One can be done fairly early on & the other has to be done later. I applaud you for having the strength & love to care for 2 special needs children so close in age. Even tho my 5 year old daughter is CF free & her Dad is not a carrier of the gene, we opted not to "push" our luck with trying for another. I had a fabulous pregnancy & outside of an acute decline in my health that could have happened without having a baby, we thank our lucky stars & leave it at that. We did have a "scare" recently that had my emotions about having a baby going again, but it was a false alarm & definitely should have been nothing other than a false alarm considering the type of birth control I use. I dont know if you were "trying" to have another child or not, but I believe all babies are gifts & meant to be. Sometime they arent always meant for the ones carrying them (such as teenage moms etc), but there is a reason. Good Luck with whatever you decide as far as testing the baby. Either way you are blessed!<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">
Hi! My name is Don.My wife and I have three daughters 8, 3 and 2. Our youngest has CF. We had major fertility problems after child #1 so child #2 was due to In vitro. Child #3 defied medicine. We were not supposed to be able to have anymore children.Each child has a 1/4 chance of CF. This child's chance of having CF is 1 in 4. When child # 2 failed the triple marker blood test we did an amnio to see if she had Down's syndrome. Her risk went from 1 in 5000 to 1 in 87. Caroline does not have Down's. However,we neglected to check CF. She had a 1 in 4 chance and we were all "freaked out" about a 1 in 87 thing for Downs. Life is that way.Enjoy the pregancy, do an amnio is you want to be prepared. This may be your Non CF baby! But like you I would be very concerned. Children are a gift from God, so consider them as such.Don P
Hi, I have 2 children and I am due with my 3rd in August. My older child has CF, my younger one does not. When my son was only a month old, my daughter was diagnosed with CF. It was quite a shock. My husband and I had always wanted more children, so we decided to have a 3rd and we were going to keep the baby whether or not it had CF. We looked into having both the CVS test and an amnio. Since we were going to keep the baby we decided to have an amnio. I had the amnio at 16 weeks and found out the results 2 weeks later. The waiting was almost unbearable. Fortunately we found out that our unborn baby is not affected by CF. I know exactly how you feel about some people not being excited about your pregnancy. It was a very emotional time for my husband and I. When I told people about my pregnancy I approached them saying first that I have some news, and I would like to have there support. This helped with some of the negagtivity. Congradulations on your pregnancy, and I hope that everything goes well.<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"> Jennifer
serendipity730
New member
MJS and others - just as an FYI, a CFer will only have a child with CF if the partner is a carrier. If not, all of the children will just be carriers.
Thank you, but I am quite aware of this information. In my posting, I stated that my daughter was CF free & my husband is not a carrier. I said that since there are the chances of NOT having a CF child even with both parents being carriers. I also noted that we didnt want to push our luck. I meant in regard to my health & having a fabulous pregnancy. Even tho my health is still good, it doesnt gaurantee that another pregnancy would be so easy. Not to mention that the woman's posting was that she was pregnant for the 3rd time & have 2 children with Cf already. She wanted to know if there was a test that could be done on the baby while she was pregnant so they could "prepare" themselves.
I AM ABOUT 27 WEEKS PREGNANT WITH CHILD #2, MY DAUGHTER WHO IS 2 1/2 HAS CF WHEN WE FOUND OUT WE WERE PREG. AGAIN AT FIRST WE DIDNT WANT TO DO THE TESTING BECAUSE WE KNEW NO MATTER WHAT WE WOULD HAVE THIS CHILD....THEN WE BEGAN THINKING OF THE ADVANTAGES KNOWING IF THE BABY HAD CF OR NOT AND DECIDED TO GO AHEAD AND DO THE TEST. I AM NOT CRAZY ABOUT NEEDLES IN MY BELLY FOR THE AMNIO SO WE DECIDED TO DO THE CVS TESTING IT WAS A PIECE OF CAKE WE DID AT 10 WEEKS YOU CAN ONLY DO IT BETWEEN 9-13 I THINK, ANYWAY THEY VAGINALY INSERT A CATHETER AND TAKE SMALL SAMPLE OF THE VILLI FROM THE PLACENTA THEN SEND IT OFF FOR CHROMOSOME AND DNA TESTING THEY ALSO NEEDED A SAMPLE OF MY BLOOD TO MAKE SURE THE CVS SAMPLE WASN'T CONTAMINATED. WE FOUND OUT WE ARE HAVING A BABY BOY WHO CARRIES THE GENE BUT IS NOT AFFECTED BY THE DISEASE. I WOULD RECOMEND DOING CVS TO ANYONE , I HAD A LITTLE CRAMPING THE FIRST NIGHT BUT OTHER THAN THAT NO PAIN. JUST A HINT IF YOU HAVE CVS DONE YOU NEED A FULL BLADDER, OUR DOCTOR IS A HIGH RISK PERINAGTOLOGIST AND HE HAD NEVER DONE THE TEST BEFORE FOR CF BUT , ALSO IF THEY SEND THE DNA TESTING OFF TO THE SAME LAB AS WHERE YOUR OTHER CHILDRENS DNA WAS SENT YOU MAY GET RESULTS FASTER.