For many people, having children with the man or woman they love is a dream, but some women suddenly find themselves pregnant. In that case, they do not know exactly who the father is, which can be a very stressful situation. If you get pregnant by accident, chances are that the father wasn’t very keen on this either. In that case, it is nice to take a paternity test. Not only will you then know who the father of your children is, in the event of a legal determination of this, the father is also legally bound to his son or daughter. This brings with it some responsibilities and obligations. You have different types of paternity tests. We’ll tell you more about that in this article.
A non-invasive prenatal paternity test? Read here more
Non-invasive means that it does not invade the mother and baby’s body to collect DNA from the baby. This legal paternity test is therefore very safe for the baby and can be performed as early as the 9th week of pregnancy. The major advantage of our non-invasive prenatal paternity test is that it does not require DNA to be taken directly from the unborn baby. A prenatal paternity test based on chorionic villus testing or amniocentesis always poses a risk to the unborn child. The risk of miscarriage as a result of this procedure is estimated to be about 2%.
A non-invasive prenatal paternity test only requires blood to be drawn from the mother. This excludes all risks of complications for mother and baby. Moreover, this test can be performed as early as the 9th week of pregnancy, until just before delivery.
The reliability of a non-invasive prenatal paternity test
A prenatal paternity test gives you at least 99.9% certainty whether the alleged father is actually the father of the unborn baby or not. Because the prenatal paternity test can be performed as early as the 9th week of pregnancy (counting from the first day of the last menstrual period), you will therefore know well before the birth if there is paternity.
An invasive paternity test
An invasive test requires the mother to have a biopsy or a puncture performed in the hospital. This can only be done in weeks 11 – 15 and weeks 16 – 22 of pregnancy. Although this method is as reliable as a non-invasive prenatal test, it carries more risks. This is because it increases the risk of miscarriage.