One of the risks in twin pregnancies is that they arrive early, so starting from 22 weeks or so doctors start to monitor for signs of pre-term labor. In our last OB appointment, the doctor did a test to see if fetal fibronectin (fFN) could be detected. Fetal fibronectin is a protein that helps hold the gestational sac to the uterine wall. If the test picks up signs of this protein during the third trimester (which indicates that the sac may be coming loose) and there are other signs of labor, then we need to worry about labor starting too early. The lack of this protein in the test is a good thing.
Our doctor called us yesterday with the news from the fetal fibronectin test. It came back negative!
over-utilization of medical tests, thus increasing the health care costs for everyone! – fetal fibronectin should only be done if there are signs of PTL… which thankfully there doesn’t seem to be.
blame shane for telling me about the website. I’m finishing ob/gyn this week.
i understand the concern about ordering tests that aren’t justified, but in this case we didn’t post the details of why our doctor thought this test was necessary. because of things happening at the time, the test did make sense to do.