Tapping of amniotic fluid had been practised for over a 100 years although many cases had not been recorded. In the literature, transabdominal amniocentesis in the third trimester has been reported by Prochownick, Von Schatz and Lambl in 1877 and Schatz in the 1890s. In 1919 there was a report from Hinkel describing release of amniotic fluid from a patient with polyhydramnios. The first use of amniotic fluid examination in the diagnosis of genetic disease was reported by Fuchs and Riis in 1956 in their seminal article in ‘Nature’. In 1968, Mohr in Scandinavia introduced the concept of antenatal genetic diagnosis using sampled chorionic villi. Chorionic villi were obtained by aspiration or direct biopsy from the chorion frondosum, at the edge of the placental disc. In 1990, Cullen, Reece, Whethaam and Hobbins described the new technique of ‘Embryoscopy’, a transabdominal thin gauge embryofetoscopy procedure in the first trimester.