Picture every packed football staduim up and down the country - all healthy pregnancies and births. And I thought that if I were faced with the possibility of having an amnio, hours of discussion would follow - I would spend days mulling it over. I was becoming numb to the whole process. And in this instance the scan was very evident that there was something very seriously wrong. Spina bifida can usually be seen clearly on a scan and of those babies who have this condition, around 9 out of 10 (90%) will be detected. I felt I needed proof of what was wrong before I take such a huge decision and that I couldn't do it based on what someone had written on, on the paper. Somehow, I walked from the sofa up to the bathroom and told my partner. unfortunately the 20 week anomaly scan can pick up serious issues, hearing heart beats at midwife appointment doesn't let us know what's going on inside the body in detail. But that was too easy. The same anticipation. You may need to have a full bladder when you come for the appointment. So I sort of went home quite, fairly kind of happy and I, at, at this point I hadn't any idea things could go wrong anyway. However, at the time neither of us could articulate that. Some of the conditions that can be seen on the scan will mean the baby may need treatment or surgery after it is born, for example cleft lip. The people who did know what was going on seemed far too sure that we were doing the right thing, that there was really no choice to be made. It was a bit worrying but on the plus side I got an extra couple of scans and an extra couple of pictures. I had to wait for a doctor to explain the situation. Away you go'. So obviously quite relaxed. I ran into the bedroom to tell Sam, who was ecstatic. And again, you know, you read all the books and it tells you 'this is the diagnostics', but after a while you don't hear that inside your head any more No, no, no, I'm fine - because everything's perfect. And so, yeah we got to, carried on with the pregnancy, kept seeing the consultant, kept sitting in the waiting room outside, because there was a terribly long waiting time sometimes, depending on what time you had the appointment. Specialist scans are performed in specialist fetal units and if clinicians feel that there might be problems scanning will be done up to 32 weeks. We were denying him his life. I've realised that being a nice person is a luxury some can't afford. And, faced with feeling sorry for myself or feeling sorry for my child, I know which I'd choose. You do not have to have the scan. We'll make an appointment with the senior sonographer, the consultant at the local hospital, and she'll do your scan and she'll be able to tell you more things'. I sat and waited to be called for my scan. Have I misunderstood what's going on?' And, for a few hours, I'm convinced I've made a terrible mistake. My partner tried to remain calm, and at my request rang my mum. So on the Monday we went in to see the senior sonographer, I think she was a consultant at the hospital. I broke down and started hitting my disgusting body that had done this. After that I got, I, it was about in, in 19-, hang on a minute, 2001 I got pregnant again, slightly unexpectedly. Or, at the very least, heart problems. I have a terrible hatred of pregnant women and a new respect for infertile couples. I had no idea if we were doing the "right" thing. By this point I had stopped bleeding, this caused problems. I don't know how we got through the next couple of days. How common is it for 2nd baby to come early..? I couldn't bear to see the baby and asked the midwife to take him away immediately. [Husband] couldn't make it. After the triple test you stop thinking, you stop thinking that anything can go wrong. Tears started to roll down my face. I wanted to let nature take its course. She just said, 'It's a bit short, it needs to be checked' again basically. I swallowed the tablet and we left the building. Some people had underestimated how serious any abnormality found at this stage could be for the baby. On the third day, we got a phone call. So I no longer trusted my instincts. Read full disclaimer. And attribute some blame to them. And it all seemed so near at hand, you know, 31, 30 weeks, you feel like you're nearly, you're on the home stretch. This article was amended on 24 November 2015 to anonymise the writer. And I assumed my partner would feel the same. My wife turned the screen away from her. And there [sighs] was a very dark patch over one, where the eye socket was, and they didn't know it, in the Edward's babies sometimes the eyes don't develop properly, or it might have been bleeding, they weren't very sure. I returned to be told they wanted to scan me again, another internal to see exactly what was happening. A few people recalled how frightened and alarmed they became when they sensed that the atmosphere in the scanning room changed in an instant from 'jokey' to serious when the baby's problems were detected. My belly was growing and I was feeling great. You will then be asked to raise your top to your chest and lower your skirt or trousers to your hips. Specialist scans had a powerful effect on some parents because they could see the baby more clearly and in some cases people recognised which parts of the baby's body were not working properly. The scan can provide information that may mean you have to make further, important decisions. No, you couldn't see there was anything wrong. Why me and not you, you bastard? Sometimes specialist scans such as 3D scans, or MRI scans, are used to examine the baby in greater detail. All women are offered a dating scan, and an 18- 20 week fetal anomaly ultrasound scan, in line with NICE and UK National Screening Committee recommendations. And I couldn't escape the feeling that I was being selfish. We use some essential cookies to make this website work. Find more information and details of support groups on NHS.UK. In the case of a suspected abnormality, women should be seen for a second opinion by an expert in fetal ultrasound, such as a fetal medicine specialist. Wed like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services.
I know its hard- but i really wouldnt worry about it too much as the worry will stress you and your body out. Thick milky discharge at 14 weeks.tmi pic attached. Mumsnet carries some affiliate marketing links, so if you buy something through our posts, we may get a small share of the sale (more details here).
What are the chances of bad news at the 20 week scan | Mumsnet I think what everyone is saying is that most likely outcome is that there are no problems at all. And the doctor - because it was a doctor rather then just the, a sonographer or whatever the correct term is - was scanning my wife, and she hovered over the heart of the baby and said, 'Oh there's the heart, we'll come back to that'. However, a few hours later there was another shift change. The doctor gave her consent, and I took the four little tablets. Two days, after on Christmas Eve, (my 12 week date) I had more blood tests. I want to enjoy my son again, without any reservations. The pain was bearable but uncomfortable, the hospital rang me a few days later and asked me how I was. Despite this new discovery, the sonographer was still concerned. And shortly after that, that scan we'd finished and the consultant leant back and said, 'I'm afraid we have some problems here'. The baby was kicking so hard that I began to believe him. A long process of blood tests, scans, doctors and hospitals. It was the end of January, very end - about the 29th - I'd gone into, I'd gone into 5 months by then. So instead, I was advised to go home and let nature take its course. This scan takes place between 18 weeks and 20 weeks 6 days of pregnancy and is commonly called the 20-week scan. And I know I can't hurry up the process of grieving. 1. And then, so I went to my next scan, which was the 20-week abnormality scan, and we took our first child with us, I think he was 17 months old at the time. Last reviewed July 2017. The doctor or midwife looking after you will let you know before you come. Yeah, yeah. I remember thinking, 'Gosh' I now know it was a girl, I didn't know that then, that, 'She looks just like her brother'. The scan will find about half (50%) of those babies who have heart defects. But you could see there was something wrong? I felt the dread run through me.
Getting through the 20 week scan - My BabyManual Emma was 20 weeks' pregnant when a routine scan revealed that the baby she was expecting had Down's syndrome and heart problems. This scan takes place between 18 weeks and 20 weeks 6 days of pregnancy and is commonly called the 20-week scan. I remember thinking, 'that doesn't look quite right'. To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account. For five months my body had known there was something wrong, yet I had felt fantastic. The weeks since that day have been very weird. And it was then because we were at 20 weeks by this point, there was only fairly short window to actually, to get some more tests done, find out what the problems were, and then make any decisions that might have to be made. That they could have spotted something, or not? Some people want to find out if their baby has one of the 11 conditions and some do not. The only thing you're thinking now is the birth, and what if something goes wrong in the birth? Went back a week later for the scan and, you were with me for this one, weren't you? I've been incredibly lucky to have such amazing support from Sam, my mum, and close friends and family. 80 percent of my pregnancies have ended in death and I felt like they were telling me those babies didn't matter. Which she reassured us that she'd be absolutely fine, this was a one-off. 17/12/2020 17:13. It was probably all right but hadn't had any fluid in it at the moment. You get extra care and monitoring as appropriate and baby is proactively treated. When I think about how long it took them to deliberate ultimately, maybe not, but it just felt like a bit of a fast food situation, didn't it? When he came back, he agreed on a termination. He wanted to talk about it, but I didn't. We had the baby cremated. So we decided to book an early 10 week private scan. I had to wait yet another sleepless night. It would have been nice to see someone straight away because I was in such shock. As I lay down, and the sonographer started, I could see there was something wrong. At first, I still had to deal with the physical implications of having given birth. She brought up a picture of the heart on the screen. I was young, I didn't need one. And I could see, before she even said anything I could see that there was something wrong with the heart. At which point they turned round and said, 'Well, there is something very seriously wrong with the baby, we don't know exactly what, but you do need to have a more in-depth scan at your regional hospital to find out the detail'. . And that was a terrible moment to be sort of hanging on, waiting. Although the anomaly scan is often called a 20-week scan, you may have it any time between 18 and 22 weeks, although it's usually done between 18 and 20 weeks. That he - I think I was 21 weeks and 3 days, and he was coming up at 19 weeks and 4 days, or something like that. And I am slowly coming to terms with what has happened.
And as soon as she said those words, both of us were like, 'Well what's wrong?'. I thought surely everything is ok, as they couldn't detect twins the week before. He bluntly told me, he wasn't interested in whatever was seen before, he was only going to go by what he saw that day. The baby was very, very small. There was an extra digit on one of the hands. There was cause for concern. Can't seem to find info on the Internet. (See. And so we had to go out a couple of times, [wife] had to walk around, and she had a drink of water, which is supposed to sort of change things inside, or help the baby turn around or something because the sonographer couldn't get the measurements she wanted. Though the 18-20 week scan can detect when certain parts of the baby's body have grown abnormally, it may not be possible for clinicians to identify why it has happened or make a firm diagnosis based on the scan alone. I just feel very unlucky. You may like someone to come with you to the scan appointment. So we went home really and I sort of had to think about it all night. This was a ray of hope for us. Some parents wondered if it was possible to have the same scan done at 16 weeks rather than 20 weeks. By my own hand, I had to end the pregnancy. No one else felt him kick. There were also two spots on his heart, which were "soft markers" for Down's syndrome. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk. The 18 -20 week fetal anomaly scan is a watershed in most pregnancies because for the majority of women it will be the last time they are scanned before giving birth. Soon, the doctor came and inserted the tablets that would induce labour. And that was extraordinary to see the detail that that could offer. No sort of questions about, 'Do you want to know whether it's a boy or a girl?' The scan yet again confirmed things were not good, however the sac had grown. He looked excited. The consultant at the time wasn't really that interested in that imagery. . Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. Usually, sonographers will ask a senior sonographer colleague to confirm findings and this should be done immediately. Can you remember that minute. The first midwife seemed to understand what we were trying to say, and said she would ask the doctor to come and talk to us. What would we like to do with the body? And they took us out of the scanning room, into a more quiet room while they typed up the report. Then, three days later, I would go to the labour ward - the ward I had been expecting to visit in two and a half months. And how wrong could they be? An hour passed and I started to panic. How was that scan different from the dating scan? I did think it was a bit strange that she wasn't talking, and then she sort of said, 'Oh, I think there's a problem. But he was not sure. She wanted to have a look at the skull, which was the main thing, but she couldn't see it from where the baby was. He told me that they may want to do blood tests, but that 'he didn't see the point'. Sometimes a post mortem was needed to confirm the 20-week diagnosis to see if the baby had inherited a genetic problem (such as Fowler syndrome - see '. I'm trying to understand because I haven't seen a 3-D scan, what it tells the parents? They would then re-test me in two days time. Immediately I knew what decision we should take. That was the first time I had heard him cry. It was real. Later, I did see and hold our baby. My partner's face was lit up, seeing the baby for the first time. And for that whole time, my partner and I were both crying uncontrollably. 12/12/2012 22:41.
While some parents understood the clinician's restraint - even when they had to wait an hour or more for a definite diagnosis - others disliked being kept in suspense and wanted to be told what the clinician was thinking. And I can just remember flashing a look at you as if to say, 'Have I made a mistake here somewhere? In some cases concerns in utero fix themselves sometimes needs treatment. And everybody knows and everything is right. I tried to keep positive. You've had a scan, you've had the blood tests, you've been good. Within it are a number of recommendations for the communication of findings from ultrasounds. So once again we were right back down, really no, really not knowing what to expect. The milk came and stayed for what seemed like for ever. The thing that I have a very strong memory of is this child's face in amazing detail. We had to discuss what we wanted to do with the little body after delivery. But the closeness has remained after the drama has died down. You know there's always that bit on the bottom of the thing, 'These are diagnostics, do not bring other children,' - blah, blah, blah.. it's not, you know, it's not a family outing kind of thing, but it feels like it. Not marginalised into being a victim.
20-week ultrasound (anomaly scan) - BabyCenter Australia Saturday came. It's part of our family. And the first few things they said it didn't sound as thing, as though things were terribly wrong. Last updated July 2017. We'd sort of put those discussions to the back of our mind, and then all of a sudden there are other abnormalities so yeah it was a bit a bit of a shocker [laughs]. The anomaly scan, also called the 20 week scan or mid-pregnancy scan, is used to detect pregnancy irregularities significant in diagnosis of any of the following conditions: In most instances no serious issue will be found during the scan and many parents-to be will come away knowing that all is progressing nicely and, perhaps, having found out . The decision to terminate the pregnancy was my partner's and mine. Mumsnet carries some affiliate marketing links, so if you buy something through our posts, we may get a small share of the sale (more details here). Likely to have serious medical problems all his life. Sometimes doctors will wait to give the baby more time to develop and carry out repeat scans - this had confused several parents we talked to who had gone for repeat scans not knowing that the baby might have a problem. I agreed to an internal scan as the sonographer said we could get a better picture of what was happening. As I say, I'm not a very nice person at the moment. And the local hospital wanted to send us off to the regional hospital to actually confirm that, and were not really prepared to say at that time that there was something very seriously wrong. I know it sounds odd that you want to hear that it's wrong, but you, you know it's wrong, and you, you want to be reassured either that it's okay or is there something seriously wrong. I didn't want to be convincing him to agree with me. There, I would give birth. And they actually asked my husband to come in before they spoke to me. There is always a chance that a baby may be born with a health issue that scans could not have identified. Thankfully I was met by an amazing sonographer, she was compassionate and understanding. That he was small. Wishing to be anywhere, but here being told the same agonising truth over and . We, I was with my mum, and they scanned and found choroid plexus cysts on the brain, which is just a mark, it's a marker on the brain, it's a, what they call a 'soft marker'. In most cases the scan will show that your baby appears to be developing as expected but sometimes a condition is found or suspected. So he was about two weeks smaller than what he should have been. But for those few days they were torture. DS had 2 soft markers: talipes (club foot) and 'echogenic locii' somewhere - heart I think. Trying to carry on as normal, working and putting on a brave face. It felt so wrong. So had to come back in a week's time for a scan, which again is quite a common thing I found out. We saw the consultant, who was reassuring, saying that he would rescan me and was sure everything would be fine. I wasn't ready to make a decision straight away, and I was told I could call them in the morning. My partner was away working and was waiting to hear whether he was having a son or daughter. They said the brain was okay -, We were in there for a matter of minutes, literally -, In and out. (See 'Resources'). The results come in stages. Others, including those who had been given leaflets to read about the scan beforehand as well as some who were health professionals, said that they had been nave about the 20-week scan. I want to be happy again. But at the 20 week scan, which was on a Wednesday, we saw the nurse at the local hospital, the sonographer, and she did a scan and she found that the femur length was quite short in the, in the fetus. My wife had been very, very healthy, more healthy than the first pregnancy, and of course was shattered by the fact that the news, the news was appalling, very serious faces. So I took the test and jumped in the shower. The gel makes sure there is good contact between the probe and your skin. 15/02/2014 08:02. 18-20 week scans provide clinicians with more information than earlier scans because by18 weeks a healthy baby should be larger and better developed. The same anxious wait for a little, pathetic cry. For instance a couple who knew their baby was 'on the small size' were told he was fine at the 18-20 week scan, but discovered at 32 weeks that he had microcephaly. By this time, we were tired. She advised I be referred to the EPU to be assessed. And even at that early stage it was beginning to sink in that there was something really not right. The hormone levels had dropped, but they wanted to scan me again. He had to come to the decision by himself. But on, in the middle of March, 10th March it was, we had a 20 week scan. Limitations of the 18-20 week scan
Severe chromosomal conditions such as Edwards' syndrome are now often picked up in the first trimester antenatal screening but itwill usually be more obviousat the 18- 20 week scan, though usually a firm diagnosis will not be made until one or two specialists have weighed up all available evidence about the baby - which usually means that another expert needs to scan the baby again, or until the woman has had an amniocentesis. My mum arrived early to look after our son, and my partner and I got a cab to the hospital. or sort of light chat that we'd, we'd experienced before with previous scans. Emma was 20 weeks' pregnant when a routine scan revealed that the baby she was expecting had Down's syndrome and heart problems. It will take only 2 minutes to fill in. We understand the real meaning of "shit happens". To help us improve GOV.UK, wed like to know more about your visit today. It's quite common, perhaps 1 in 10 they find these, and within a few weeks they disappear. We talked about the different sorts of pain relief I could have and I opted for a morphine drip, which I could control. You're in and out and that was it. So we decided that, to have the scan and we went along I think early in the week for that, and spent quite a lot of time with the consultant after that. We don't know, but it's not looking good'. hi ladies. The first result, which tells you if the baby has Down's syndrome, is ready in three days, but the other chromosomal problems cannot be eliminated for up to three weeks. I went home feeling crushed; Sam and I both felt helpless. Some of the other conditions, such as heart defects, are more difficult to see. So when that happened to us I really didn't worry, I thought, you know, it was literally the baby was in awkward position, they couldn't see the heart and that was why. We had the 20 week scan yesterday and got some devastating news. Smiling at myself and picturing me and Sam becoming parents. Our nightmare began when I went for my 20-week scan. Most hospitals do not allow children to attend scans as childcare is not usually available.