Well, thankfully DS was awake for almost 2 hours in the middle of the night, so I have been able to think about this a lot!

700 preventable deaths a year is almost 2 a day, is a largeish secondary school and the feeder primary schools all wiped out. So that's a lot of dead babies. And many more disabled to some degree or another.

But, as you say Bec, it is medicinalising birth, which was a reason why I didn't want the test. (Is medicinalising a word, btw?) But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be routinely offered and available on the NHS to all women. If even one baby dies from something preventable we should look at preventing that death. Surely the cost to the NHS will be outweighed by fewer disabilities in growing children and adults.

That said, I won't be tested next time. But mainly because that would mean telling the NHS that I'm pregnant and I'm not going to do that.