Blood tests that screen for abnormalities such as Downs syndrome are being offered at maternity hospitals as early as nine weeks into a pregnancy and are being urged on pregnant women as a better alternative than amniocentesis.  Prof Fergal Malone, master of the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, says the blood test can be taken from the woman’s arm and it is 99.9pc accurate. A result is returned within a week. Only women who get a positive reading go on to have the diagnostic amniocentesis test for confirmation later in their pregnancy.

Prof Malone said: “Floating around in the pregnant woman’s blood are tiny amounts of the baby’s DNA. A blood sample is taken from the mother’s arm and sent to the lab and it is back in about a week.”

The test can tell the woman if her baby will have Down’s syndrome as well as other abnormalities such as Edwards Syndrome which might result in the child dying naturally before or some time after birth. The screening test costs about €350 in the Rotunda and is not yet available free on the public health system, but amniocentesis is provided without cost.

Prof Malone told the Irish Independent that the Rotunda is now doing around 2,500 screening tests annually. He said: “They are expanding the range of conditions they can test for all the time.

“I find that pregnant women who are older are now very aware of the risk of Down syndrome and they bring it up early on.”