Non inasive prenatal testing

Non-invasive prenatal testing, NIPT, is a way of identifying chromosomal abnormalities in unborn foetuses. It involves taking a sample of the mothers blood with will contain a small amount of cell free foetal DNA from the placenta, it is beneficial to invasive methods, such as amniocentesis, because it doesn't have any associated risk of miscarriage. It can also be done early on in the pregnancy and can also be less expensive than other tests.

The most common abnormalities that it detects are aneuploidies at chromosomes 21 (Down Syndrome), 18 (Edward's Syndrome) and 13 (Patau Syndrome).