I actually got first hand experience with this topic yesterday. I'll try to make a long story short.....I am 12 weeks pregnant and over 35, which makes me "of advanced maternal age" according to doctors. After initially seeing my ob/gyn, I received two calls to make appointments for ultrasounds. The first was routine(ish) at my local hospital and the second was at a Maternal Fetal Medicine clinic about an hour away. At the first appointment the ultrasound tech seemed very curious as to why my doctor ordered the ultrasound he did since I have no history of any health problems, high blood pressure, diabetes, no medications of any kind, etc., but it only took 15 minutes instead of the hour they told me it would take, so I took that as a good sign.
My husband and I were a little irritated about having to go to the second ultrasound (two ultrasounds two days in a row), but we made the hour drive with crying baby. When I got there, they checked me in for TWO appointments. One hour long "nuchal translucency" ultrasound (measuring fluid at the back of baby's neck to check for possible chromosomal defects), followed by a "genetic counseling" appointment. I was pissed! I never told my doctor I was concerned with my baby having Down's syndrome, nor did I suggest that I'd do anything about it if that was the diagnosis. Not to mention the fact that I didn't know that was why I was driving an hour for this appointment. I told them I wasn't interested in the second appointment, but I'd go through with the ultrasound since we made the drive anyways.
The ultrasound took forever but they finally got baby in the right position to take their measurements. After a wait, a doctor came in and first asks us, "So why did you choose to come here today?". I bluntly told her we did NOT choose to come and had no idea what the appointment actually was until we got there. She seemed taken aback, but proceeded (somewhat smugly) to tell us that it was a good thing we came because the ultrasound was "abnormal." I calmly said "ok" and let her go on. Husband chose to make it clear to her that we didn't care what the diagnosis was, it's our baby and we're having it. This time she got a little defensive and gave reasons why they would need to do further testing (which had it's own risks of inducing miscarriage) and we continued to tell her we weren't interested in further testing of any kind. She mentioned biopsying my placenta. NOT happening!
So we got kicked over to the genetic counselor anyways, who had just gotten a hold of my doctor's office and received the results of a blood test they took two weeks prior. She was showing us charts that showed that the measurements they just took on our baby's neck were at the thick end of the "normal" spectrum and thin end of "abnormal" spectrum, so basically not conclusive at all. She really wanted us to focus on this 3.7% chance of our baby having a chromosomal abnormality, but my eyes kept going to the 93% chance for healthy, normal baby. Then she tells us my blood test came back absolutely normal, indicating no sign of any genetic defects in baby. We were of course happy to hear that, but also very relieved that they were now going to leave us alone and just treat me like a normal, healthy pregnant woman.
The bizarre thing to us was how much emphasis they all were putting on this fear factor of our baby's tiny chance of being different. They all seemed very taken aback by us and our calm responses (rather than emotional reactions, which I felt like they were used to seeing). There was a strong emphasis on wanting/expecting us to feel afraid and to focus on that tiny chance that our baby might not be “normal” and healthy. In retrospect, we feel like what they really wanted was the insurance money from the biopsy, extra blood test, etc that they wanted us to buy into. My husband came away feeling like they would have pushed us to have an abortion if there were strong indications of a chromosomal defect. We both understand the power of thought, focus, and attention and feel that we were given the opportunity to buy into their fear tactics and really start to worry that something is wrong with our baby. But we don’t play those games anymore, so we held onto our knowing that our baby is perfect no matter what. Such a strange experience….
TLDR: It’s ridiculous what they have “older” pregnant women go through simply because there is a correlation between maternal age and likelihood of chromosomal defects like Down’s syndrome, all without even asking the parents if they are concerned and if they would take action to end the pregnancy if such diagnosis occurs. I just had a healthy baby last year, and I'm not even that old.