A study has found that testing DNA in the mother's blood can accurately detect if the baby is suffering from Down's syndrome.
Such a blood test could avoid 98 per cent of invasive diagnostic tests currently in use which carry a one in 100 chance of triggering a miscarriage, they said.
Scientists in China carried out tests on 753 pregnant women at high risk of having a Down's child, including some from Britain.
They found the blood test was highly accurate at positively detecting those with Down's babies and did not give negative results for those with the condition, known as a false negative.
Professor Rossa Chiu, from Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences and Department of Chemical Pathology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, said that currently the blood test would be expensive but further research and refinement may be possible.
