genetic testing

Our doctor had suggested to us a few weeks ago that we may want to consider having a Jewish Panel Screen and Cystic Fibrosis test done.  There are some genetic diseases associated with people of Jewish decent so what better time to find out if you are a carrier than AFTER you are already pregnant.  (that kind of annoys me).  I wish she would have said something to me about this the last visit I had with her before I was pregnant! That way if I were to actually be a carrier I would be aware of the risks before there was an actual baby in the developmental process.  If I were to wind up coming up with something... and then Cliff got tested and was also a carrier we would still only have a 25% chance that something would develop.  Luckily these are also diseases on a recessive gene so the odds are pretty good that we are in the clear, but it's in the back of my mind.  I can not imagine having to make a difficult decision about the fate of our child, if you catch my drift.  

I am sure its totally normal to have these kinds of worries.  Worry about the viability of the pregnancy.  Worry about genetic defects or complications...  It's hard to get away from it all because everybody has a sob story to tell you. Maybe it's even worse for me because I work in a medical related field and I see bad things happening to people all the time and I realize that I am really no different than they are, so why wouldn't it happen to me too?   As a matter of fact today on Oprah they interviewed this lady who had just given birth via planned C-Section to her second daughter and after she delivered, she developed some horrible infection and then wound up having several of her internal organs removed as well as both her arms and legs amputated!   Really makes you feel good about having a baby right?!!!!  This is why I think sometimes it is so much nicer to be blissfully ignorant in life.