Minister Hermans scraps 13-week ultrasound for pregnant women from 2028
Pregnant women will no longer be able to have the 13-week scan to detect abnormalities from 1 January 2028, after the health minister decided not to continue the experiment.
Health Minister Sophie Hermans has decided to end the 13-week ultrasound, which has been offered since 2021 to detect congenital abnormalities. She announced this on Monday in a letter to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of parliament. The experiment will not be continued and the scan disappears for good on 1 January 2028.
Why it matters
- From 1 January 2028, pregnant women can no longer have the 13-week ultrasound.
- The scan was offered as part of a scientific study, alongside the regular 20-week ultrasound.
- The cabinet will examine the whole chain of prenatal screening, including ultrasounds and the NIPT blood test.
Hermans is following advice from the Gezondheidsraad (Health Council), which last month advised against making the 13-week scan a permanent part of maternity care in its current form. The council concluded that the benefits do not outweigh the drawbacks. Scan results were not always correct: women were sometimes referred unnecessarily, and a relatively large number of abnormalities were missed.
The council analysed the first year of the study
- 531
- abnormalities detected among 129,704 scans
- 775
- false-positive scans that worried parents unnecessarily
- 1,164
- abnormalities missed and found later in pregnancy
The minister goes a step further than the council, which had argued for more research to improve how the scan is used. Hermans does not want that. A new study would mean offering the scan for another ten years, she wrote, when it is not clear that the benefits outweigh the risks.
Although the cabinet takes the possibilities for improving the protocol seriously, there turn out to be many drawbacks at present to offering the 13-week ultrasound again in a research setting.Health Minister Sophie Hermans, in her letter to parliament
Hermans said she does not want to expose pregnant women again to unnecessary worry when a result turns out to be a false alarm. She also wants to look at the whole prenatal screening process, including how the current system of ultrasounds and the NIPT blood test for genetic abnormalities can be improved.
Tweede Kamer
The House of Representatives, the lower and more powerful house of the Dutch parliament. Its 150 members are elected directly; it can amend bills and holds the cabinet to account.
Gezondheidsraad
The Health Council is the independent advisory body that gives the Dutch government and parliament recommendations on health and medical questions. Its advice is not binding, but ministers often base policy decisions on it. In this article, the minister is following its advice on whether the 13-week scan should become a permanent part of maternity care.
NIPT (Niet-invasieve prenatale test)
NIPT (non-invasive prenatal test) is a blood test taken from the pregnant woman that analyses small fragments of fetal DNA circulating in her blood to screen for certain chromosomal conditions, such as Down syndrome. It is a screening test, not a diagnosis, so a positive result usually has to be confirmed with a further test. It is part of the wider prenatal screening that the Dutch government and healthcare providers offer to pregnant women.