This special test is a screening test used to detect the risk of Down’s syndrome in an unborn baby. It has several names, the most common ones being Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT), and Cell-free Fetal DNA Testing (CfF-DNA).

NIPT is highly sensitive and is able to detect more than 99% of cases of Down’s syndrome. Traces of the baby’s DNA circulate in the mother’s bloodstream – known as cfDNA (cell free DNA). Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) is a way of examining fetal DNA by taking a sample of blood from a pregnant woman to determine the baby’s risk for a number of genetic disorders, including Down’s syndrome.

All NIPTs screen for the most common chromosomal disorders:

• Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome)
• Trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome)
• Trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome)

NIPT also offers optional testing for other genetic conditions such as deletion syndromes and sex chromosome aneuploidies.