A routine test for fetal abnormalities could improve a mother’s health

WHEN NON-INVASIVE prenatal testing (NIPT) arrived in 2011, it transformed pregnancy. With a simple blood test, scientists could now sweep a mother’s bloodstream for scraps of placental DNA, uncovering fetal genetic defects and shedding light on the health of the unborn baby. But the potential to monitor the mother’s health went largely unappreciated.