Do I have to do all the screening tests I’m offered?

Team Naked Doula
3 days ago
2 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Short answer: no. Screening is offered, not required. You can take all of it, none of it, or pick and choose. That’s worth knowing now, before the appointments start. The way it gets offered can feel like a fixed pathway. It isn’t.

What screening actually is

It gives you information. It doesn’t diagnose anything. It tells you whether something is more or less likely. Not whether it’s happening. That difference matters. A “higher chance” result isn’t a diagnosis. A “lower chance” result isn’t a guarantee.

You’ll be offered 3 main things in early pregnancy, roughly this order:

A blood test at your booking appointment. This checks for things like HIV, hep B, syphilis, and your blood group.

A scan around 12 weeks. Dates the pregnancy, checks development, and — if you choose — feeds into combined screening for Down’s, Edwards’ and Patau’s syndromes.

A scan around 20 weeks. Looks at your baby’s physical development in more detail.

Each one is a separate yes or no. You don’t have to opt into all of them just because you’ve opted into one.

Three questions worth sitting with before you decide:

? What would I do with the information either way?

? How would a “higher chance” result change the rest of my pregnancy?

? Is this something I want to know now, later, or not at all?

There’s no right answer. Some women want every piece of data they can get. Some want less. Both are valid.

Want to go deeper? We’ve got the full breakdown on what each scan actually checks, what the numbers mean, and what happens if something flags here [Making Sense of It All].