All I'm carrying is an old ratty bag from Target

It never even occurred to me to get tested to see my disease carrier status when I was pregnant with my first. I suppose I was still in complete shock at being pregnant, so I was focused on figuring out how to tell my mom, let alone what to ask at the OB's office. In fact, I'd never actually been to an OB; I did all my gynecological care at Planned Parenthood, so I literally was starting from complete scratch.

My family and personal medical history didn't really warrant any extra genetic tests, so I never even thought about getting them.

That's not to say I wasn't curious to see what my carrier status would be when I got my 23andMe test results back. Many of the diseases they can test for don't necessarily affect pregnant women, but they're still very interesting - everything from BRCA Cancer Mutations (yes, about 5-10% of women diagnosed with breast cancer have a genetic predisposition to the disease) to Hemochromatosis, which my friend and fellow blogger Meagan found out she is a carrier for.

And while I'm not a carrier for anything that's been researched by 23andMe, I still am completely fascinated and now find value in what results they are able to offer you just based on your genetics. For some reason, it seems less scary presented in this manner as opposed to a doctor staring at you in an office. Maybe it's because it was my choice to spit in the bottle and get tested, or maybe it's just hindsight because I'm not a carrier.

But there's definitely something to taking back a bit of control that's lost in the whole pregnancy process. It always seems like you can never get the information you need. And then you rely on Dr. Google, which is never a good idea. At least in this case, I feel informed. And not by some random message board that does nothing but scare the heck out of me.

Next week, I'll be sharing my drug sensitivity status. Yes, they're actually researching that too.

[If you're wondering, whoa what is this stuff, why are you posting about this, then please read this first post explaining my 23andMe journey and these weekly Saturday posts. And then head over to their site, particularly the Pregnancy Community to learn more and share your own experiences]