One child died when Darlene went into labor at 20 weeks' gestation. So when Darlene became pregnant again last year, she and Todd had some hard thinking to do. The chances were one in four this new child would also have infantile polycystic kidney disease, which almost always proves fatal. As much as they love children, neither one was prepared for the emotional upheaval of losing another child. The couple, who live in rural Friedens in Somerset County, opted to have prenatal genetic testing at Magee.
Many people are uneasy about prenatal testing.
The fear is that the tests deliver terrifying news to couples, who then have few options other than aborting the pregnancy. But Dr. W. Allen Hogge, Berkey's doctor and the director of Magee's genetics department, said the reality isn't so ghastly. Rather than instigating abortions, prenatal testing may help reduce them, he argued. Prenatal tests usually provide good news for couples, which in turn encourages most couples to proceed with a pregnancy. More common are recessive genetic diseases, such as the infantile polycystic kidney disease that worried the Berkeys.