One screened every minute

"If you choose to continue, you will have these people who will say 'why didn't you terminate?' and pass judgement. And if you terminate, you will have people pass judgement and say 'how could you do that?'"

Belinda talks about her experience of non-invasive prenatal screening and termination following a Trisomy 21 diagnosis. Belinda grew up as a hearing child of deaf parents. She is a full time professional and mother of four children.

"We had to have some hard conversations about whether to continue with the pregnancy".

Naomi is a midwife and Al is an architect. They are the parents of two boys - Frankie, who is seven and Joe. Joe passed away suddenly just before his second birthday. Only a few months later, Naomi became pregnant. They talk about the decision to terminate the pregnancy when a non-invasive prenatal screening result showed a high chance of a chromosomal deletion. Naomi and Al share what they have learnt about pre-natal screening as they've climbed, in their words, 'the Everest of grief'.

"It was a Friday afternoon, I received the call from the genetic counsellor, I was about to do school pickup. She just informed me that my blood test had come back and had shown abnormalities."

Chantelle is a nurse and also runs her husband's business. They have five children. Yes. Five. When pregnant with her youngest son she received a high chance screening result for Trisomy 21 or Down syndrome. Chantelle talks us through how she and her husband, who initially had different ideas about continuing the pregnancy, navigated the decision-making that followed.

"What does this diagnosis actually mean for us? What does it mean for this little baby?"

Kaisi received a non-invasive prenatal screening result showing a high chance for Trisomy 18 or Edward's Syndrome. This result came soon after she lost a twin who was stillborn. After many months of having the pregnancy monitored and gathering information about Trisomy 18, the couple chose to terminate the pregnancy. Kaisi is a teacher and now a busy mum to two young daughters but as she'll explain, her path to parenthood hasn't been straightforward.

"We were such a different couple getting that diagnosis . . . To be at those crossroads is a very very different thing."

Sallie lives in regional Victoria with her husband Josh and their three children. In this episode Sallie talks about decision making following a prenatal screening result showing a high chance for Trisomy 21 or Down syndrome when she was pregnant with her eldest child Oscar. She and her husband Josh decided to decline invasive screening and continued the pregnancy.

Welcome to One screened every minute - this first explainer episode is the perfect place to start.

Non-invasive prenatal screening - what's the big deal? Host Elizabeth Callinan speaks with prenatal screening expert Dr Melody Menezes about screening options available to prospective parents in Australia and how non-invasive prenatal screening (NIPT) has changed the prenatal screening landscape. Melody clarifies the difference between screening and diagnostic prenatal tests and talks about the chromosomal differences and how they occur.

Elizabeth talks about her growing interest in prenatal screening. It all started when a paediatrician shared his suspicion about her daughter's development.

You can revisit this episode to clarify terminology mentioned across the series.

A podcast bringing you conversations with ordinary people who have received extraordinary information about chromosomal differences in their pregnancy.