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Sometimes a woman wishes to confirm the paternity of her child before the baby is born. DNA testing can be performed in such cases, however a referral and request for testing from the woman's doctor is required. Reports will only be issued to the doctor and not directly to the mother or the alleged father. We strongly recommend that counselling is obtained before proceeding with pre-natal parentage testing.
It is not possible to obtain a blood sample from the unborn child by our usual methods. Therefore it is necessary to obtain either a chorionic villi or amniotic fluid sample for analysis of the child's DNA profile. Collection of both these types of samples is intrusive and must be performed by a qualified doctor after discussions with our laboratory. Note that we cannot guarantee that results will be obtained from pre-natal samples. However, if the testing is unsuccessful we will provide analysis of a blood sample from the child after birth for no additional charge. In this situation it would not be necessary for the mother and alleged father to provide a second blood sample.
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