The ’3,000 Needless Miscarriages’

MORE than 3,000 healthy babies could be dying in the womb each year because their mothers are needlessly being given tests which can trigger miscarriage, it was claimed yesterday.

The accuracy of scanning tests for Down’s syndrome has been ‘overstated’, according to a report in Ultrasound, the Journal of the British Medical Ultrasound Society.

It found there is a lack of scientific data to support the use of ‘nuchal thickness’ tests, which check the fluid-filled area at the back of the baby’s neck at 12 weeks.

These tests are used as a preliminary method of screening babies for Down’s syndrome.

When the nuchal thickness test results show a woman is at a higher than average risk of having a Down’s baby, a further invasive exam – such as amniocentesis – is carried out.

But these tests carry a risk of miscarriage for at least one in 200 babies, some of which may have been wrongly identified as being at risk of birth defects.

The report by retired ultrasound expert Dr Hylton Meire found that to prevent one baby being born with a common chromosomal defect such as Down’s, around three healthy babies will be lost to miscarriage.

He said: ‘Using this technique to try to prevent the births of all cases of the two most common chromosome abnormalities in the UK would lead to the loss of 3,200 normal babies every year.’

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