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Here in town, we have a Perinatologist who specializes in high risk pregnancies. He is the one I saw for all of my sequential screenings, etc....for Down's, and he is the one who was recommended for an amnio if needed. I never had one, but would tell you to seek out the high risk doc in town since they are the ones who perform them the most. He also told me that the risk of miscarriage due to amnio is not really relevant anymore. The medical community used to believe that amnio caused certain miscarriages, but now statistics are showing that the same amount of women who have never had amnios miscarry anyway. Anyway, hope this helps.

I had mine done in a place that does a variety of services such as amnios, MRIs, x-rays, mammograms and CAT scans. They were called Alta Imaging and the DR's there did amnios (or MRIs or whatever they did) all day long. I don't think my ob-gyn would have done it at all. They are connected to the hospital and the dr's just send their patients to the "imaging" place to get any of those services done. So maybe the hospital your dr. works out of can send you to their "amnio, MRI, x-ray" place. Hope this helps, good luck.

I asked my dr. and he said they do it at the office...I don't know how to say "I'd rather someone else who does it all day long did it".... I'm just afraid they may not do that many of them... I guess I should ask who does it, if it's one of the dr's, or someone else? I just can't see the dr's being specialists on the u/s...they do have a technician who does that.

LMK - I know it's hard to question doctors sometimes, but you definitely should if it makes you feel more confident about the procedure. Ask them how often they do amnios (how many per week/month/year) and what their miscarriage rate is (they may or may not have that info, but you have the right to ask). Also ask if they usually have a genetic counselor on staff to talk with you about the test and about the results. (Most places that specialize in amnio would have that.) And ask if they ever refer patients to a specialist for the procedure. If you don't like what you hear, or if they won't answer your questions, ask about getting a referral. My OB doesn't do amnio so she referred us to 2 places that did - we went to a perinatal center in Portland, OR that does a lot of them, so we felt very comfortable with them. Best of luck!

There will be one person (a technician of some kind) giving you an US so they can see the location of the baby, while the doctor is inserting the needle. There is probably a place they can refer you to. I'd push for that if I were you, esp. if they don't do too many a month/year

Hi Imk. Ask your doc how many he/she does a month. You can check with your insurance to find a specialist in your area, and call them in advance to find out how many they do a month, so when you ask the doc you're ready with the name. Then if their number is too low for you, just ask for the referral and say you'd like to go there because you're very scared of the procedure and you'll feel better doing it there. If your doc does a lot of them, you're probably fine with your doc.

Hi, I just got the NT test done. Since my dr. doesn't do these, he referred me to a high risk center. There I asked the dr. how many amnios she does, and she said about 2 or 3 per month, and she said she probably does more than my regular dr. 2 or 3 still sounds low to me...what do you think? I read on a website that you should find someone who does at least 50 per year, and I'm wondering how to find someone like that. That would mean at least 4 per month. I'm a bit PO'd at my reg dr. now anyway, since I told him the reason for the NT was to find out if I was going to be high risk for DS...and then I could do a CVS instead of waiting for the amnio. Knowing this, they scheduled me with the high risk ctr for the NT at 12w3d...well the high risk dr. told me the latest they do a CVS is 12 weeks! So either my dr. should've known this and told me ahead of time or scheduled me earlier for the NT! I'm not sure what to say to him now at my next appt. I mean, what's the point of doing the NT w/o the possibility of the CVS, since I know I'm going to do an amnio regardless of the NT results!

I read that the cvs has higher risks of ending up with a kid with messed up arms or legs, and the amnio carries a slight mc risk. If I get pg again and manage to stay that way, I'm going for the amnio, not the cvs. I'd personally go for all the noninvasive tests I can get my doc to do - the more info I get the better I feel. Good luck!

sleepy, I haven't read that the CVS has a higher risk of deformities! It does have a higher risk of miscarriage than the amnio. That's why I wanted to do the NT first. If my results came back 1/10 for Downs then I'd probably do the CVS. Regardless, I do want to do the amnio, as I'm 37, but the closer I get to it, the more worried I get!