NIPT stands for Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing, also known as NIPS which stands for Non-Invasive Prenatal Screening. These tests are a type of genetic screening used to detect certain chromosomal abnormalities in a fetus, such as Down syndrome (trisomy 21), Edwards syndrome (trisomy 18), and Patau syndrome (trisomy 13), among others. They are performed by analyzing a blood sample taken from the mother, which contains fragments of DNA from the placenta, known as cell-free DNA. This non-invasive testing method poses minimal risk to both the mother and the fetus.