A variety of techniques including both invasive and non-invasive are carried out to diagnose the healthiness and condition of the fetus present in the mother’s womb. These methods are termed as prenatal diagnosis and it is helpful for the determination of the outcome of pregnancy, determination of the conditions that may affect the future pregnancies. It also deals with the time of delivery of the baby. Congenital abnormalities can be found out by this method and if treatments are possible, it could be carried out even to the fetus that is present in the uterus.
The fetal and placental tissues can be analyzed by a variety of pathological examination methods. It may be a gross examination, microscopic, radiography, microbiologic culture, karyotyping, fluorescence in situ hybridization, DNA probes, biochemical analysis, flow cytometry and electron microscopy. These methods reveal the condition of the fetus monthly.
Abnormalities such as chromosomal abnormalities could be find out by the choice of prenatal testing procedures. If any treatments are not available to cure the fetus then it may be aborted with the acceptance of the couples.
Not only birth defects, but in some cases fetal screening is used to determine some general characteristics. Though there are many advantages with prenatal diagnosis, there many ethical issues hindering the progression of prenatal testing.
