9 weeks pregnant: choosing your Down syndrome screening

At 9 weeks pregnant, your baby is about 2.1cm long, roughly the size of a 20-cent coin, and the placenta is now fully working. Your symptoms may be at their strongest. This is also the week to decide about Down syndrome screening, because the first test windows open at 9 and 10 weeks.

Your baby at 9 weeks

KKH calls the placenta your baby's lifeline. It takes nutrients and oxygen from your blood and sends waste back the other way, and it works like a filter: the two blood supplies don't mix. Fingers and toes are forming, and the eyes, nose and ears are becoming visible, HealthXchange says.

Your blood group, taken at the first visit, matters from here on. KKH explains that if you're rhesus negative (a minus after your blood group, such as B-), your doctor may give you anti-D during pregnancy. HealthHub says it's offered at 28 and 34 weeks, and after delivery.

Screening for Down syndrome: your options at KKH

Screening is optional. HealthHub calls it a decision only you and your spouse can make. A screening test gives you a chance, not a diagnosis; only a diagnostic test can confirm the result.

KKH treats FTS as its gold standard and recommends it even if you also choose NIPT. Heart defects are seven times more common than Down syndrome, and only the scan can spot them. Some women who do NIPT also don't get a result. The detailed scan at 18 to 20 weeks won't catch it on its own either: KKH says up to half of babies with Down syndrome have a normal scan.

Ask your clinic what each test costs before you book. Our prenatal check-ups and scans guide covers what each visit includes.

Coping when it all piles up

KKH's planner expects symptoms to peak around now. Its answer is support: your partner, family, friends. When stress builds, step back from whatever is causing it if you can, and find one dependable person to lean on.

Light exercise helps you sleep and feel less tired. KKH suggests swimming, cycling, yoga, pilates and low-impact aerobics, once your doctor has checked you have no complications. Our guide to safe exercise during pregnancy has a routine that suits Singapore's heat.

If you've felt low, irritable, tearful or hopeless on most days for up to two weeks, KKH asks you to tell your doctor.

Your week 9 to-do list

• Book first trimester screening for 11 weeks to 13 weeks 6 days, if you want it. The blood test can be done from 9 weeks.
• Decide whether to add NIPT, available from 10 weeks.
• If you're rhesus negative, note the anti-D dates: 28 and 34 weeks.
• Keep folic acid going until 12 weeks, as KKH recommends.
• Keep your bills for the MediSave Maternity Package claim after the birth.

When to call the hospital now

Bleeding, tummy pain, fainting, chest pain or breathlessness need a same-day check.

Where to go: KKH runs a 24-hour walk-in Urgent O&G Centre (Basement 1, Women's Tower) for pain and bleeding in pregnancies under 22 weeks. Milder bleeding or pain before 16 weeks can be booked into its Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit for the same or next working day. Other hospitals have their own O&G urgent services, so ask yours where to go.

Frequently asked questions

Is Down syndrome screening compulsory in Singapore?

No. HealthHub says screening is optional and the decision is yours and your spouse's.

Should I choose NIPT or first trimester screening?

KKH recommends first trimester screening either way, because its scan also checks for structural problems such as heart defects. You can do both.

Is the miscarriage risk from CVS or amniocentesis high?

At KKH it is 0.3%, or 1 in 300, for either test.

9 weeks pregnant is how many months?

A little over two months. KKH's planner marks the 2-month point at week 8.

Week by week. Previous week: 8 weeks pregnant. Next week: 10 weeks pregnant. Every week from 4 to 40: pregnancy week by week.