About a month ago, during a routine obstetrical visit with one of my patients, she surprised me by telling me she found out she was having a baby boy. At first, I thought she meant that during an ultrasound, the technician had told her the sex of the child. But she said “No,” that a girlfriend of hers had recommended a new kit she could buy on the Internet — which allegedly is 99.9 percent accurate in determining the sex of the baby, and that for $275, she could test herself at home, and send it off to the company for the results.

At first, I was taken aback because I hadn’t heard of any such kit. But more importantly, I was upset that she did not share this information with me prior to doing the test so that I could advise her on whether or not taking this test was a good idea.

I always have a problem with people worrying too much about the sex of their unborn child. I guess I can understand it to some extent for families who want to plan ahead, who want to know whether or not to paint the room pink or blue, or to think about things like circumcision. But with all the potential problems and challenges women face in creating and carrying a child to term, it’s unfortunate that sometimes people get side-tracked with insignificant details — and it strikes a nerve with me, because it brings up the topic of sex selection.

Today I read a story about six mothers in New York City who are suing Acu-Gen Biolab Inc., makers of the Baby Gender Mentor test, because their test results proved wrong at the birth of their children! I guess they felt the company had committed fraud. I tried to reach the company today to ask them some questions, but no one wanted to speak with me.

Looking at their Web site, I couldn’t gather a lot of information, but I began to understand what the “science” is behind their test kit.

For years, in the medical community, we have known that fetal cells circulate freely in the maternal bloodstream. Many geneticists have looked at the possibility of studying these fetal cells in the maternal circulation for the purpose of testing for genetic disorders like Down syndrome. But none of the data has proven it to be a good alternative for genetic testing. Yet this company has been promoting this technology to patients directly as a “safe, quick and easy way to determine the sex of your baby.”

I don’t know what federal regulation this business has been operating under. It would be nice to see what kind of guidelines they’re using, because the last time I checked, medical laboratories need to be licensed and laboratory tests must be ordered by physicians.

Finally, what are the ethics behind such a business? Are women going to use this alleged test to decide that they might want to terminate a pregnancy because now they know the baby is not the sex they wanted? It sounds like a stretch — but you’d be surprised…

Are mothers who get faulty test results going to think that their babies were switched at birth in the hospital? And what about these women that are suing?

This case is a perfect example of wasted dollars, a perfect example of unsubstantiated medical testing, and a perfect example of the types of businesses that need to be scrutinized in this country if we’re going to see any effective health care reform.

It is always sad to hear about the loss of a child. Today I read a story about Christ Hospital in New Jersey, where an investigation is being conducted to determine whether a mother’s stillborn baby was thrown out with the hospital’s garbage. Of course, the family is devastated.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have heard a story like this. There have been other stories of infants “thrown out” or “misplaced.” These babies have died from premature birth or other medical conditions and have been misplaced in a hospital setting, creating an unimaginable scenario for a family that is already in a devastating position.

Many American hospitals continue to pay little attention to the fact that a fetal loss is something that a mother and family never forget. That infant, over the course of the pregnancy, became part of the family and proper respect must always be given.

The bereavement procedure in hospitals has to ensure proper support for the mother. If it cannot, it must provide alternative social service counseling. It must give resources to the family to talk about their grief and provide all possible outlets. A stillborn baby is a human being – even if the law doesn’t acknowledge it as such — that is part of a family.

I have tried to talk to the hospital, to the Hudson County Prosecutor’s office, as well as the Jersey City Police Department, to try to understand how a baby’s corpse could have possibly been thrown out with the hospital trash, but no proper answers were given, since everybody is hiding behind rules and regulations.

A mother’s child must always be respected – whether alive or dead. And I am truly sorry for what has happened to this family. I just hope that this hospital will learn so that this will never happen again.

A test that can detect Down’s syndrome from the blood of pregnant women, which would be the first reliable noninvasive prenatal test for the chromosomal disorder, has raised the prospect of routine screening for the condition for every expectant mother who wants it.

The experimental procedure, developed in Hong Kong, has been shown to diagnose 90 percent of Down’s syndrome cases in a small trial, while also correctly identifying 97 percent of fetuses that do not have the condition.

If its accuracy can be improved and it is validated in larger patient trials, which scientists believe should take three to five years, it would transform prenatal testing for Down’s.

At present this is provided only for women at high risk of having a Down’s baby because the current procedure is invasive and can cause a miscarriage. It requires amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling (CVS), which involve inserting a needle into the womb to remove amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus, or a small piece of the placenta.

Australian surgeons are being credited for saving the leg of an unborn baby by operating on her while her mother was just 22 weeks pregnant, French news agency AFP is reporting.

The hospital told AFP Monday that this may be the earliest in utero surgery of its kind.

Baby Leah was diagnosed with a condition called amniotic band syndrome in which bands of tissue wrap themselves around a developing fetus’ limbs, hands or feet and cut off blood flow. Doctors say the tissue had wrapped around both Leah’s legs.

A hospital spokeswoman told AFP that doctors usually hold off on operating until 28 weeks of pregnancy to better the baby’s chances for survival. However, Leah risked losing both legs if doctors had waited in this case.

 When an Ohio woman looked at an ultrasound she expected to see a developing fetus.Instead, she saw what she believes to be an image of Jesus Christ, MyFox Cleveland reported on its Web site.

Click here to read the full story.

What do you think?