I've been incredibly lucky to have such amazing support from Sam, my mum, and close friends and family. Scans cannot find all conditions. Two days, after on Christmas Eve, (my 12 week date) I had more blood tests. Please note that the opinions expressed by users in Tommys Book of #misCOURAGE are solely those of the user, who is unlikely to have had medical training. So we went back the day after Boxing Day, the 27th, and the consultant greeted us, which made my alarm bells go, and she started scanning us and I think her lines were, 'What concerns me about this baby is that they've got a diaphragmatic hernia, which has meant that part of the stomach of the baby was in its chest cavity.'. She just said, 'It's a bit short, it needs to be checked' again basically. When he came back, he agreed on a termination. Our week-by-week PREGNANCY emails are a must for parents-to-be. And that was a terrible moment to be sort of hanging on, waiting. Sam squeezed my hand and told me it was ok. As I left the room to compose myself. And that was extraordinary to see the detail that that could offer. The scan can provide information that may mean you have to make further, important decisions. But on, in the middle of March, 10th March it was, we had a 20 week scan. 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. I want to be nice again. And as, and as soon as I saw the pictures of the scan, having had two normal pregnancies, even I could see that there was a marked contrast between this pregnancy and the pictures that I'd had previously. Except for the persistent, nagging doubts. I felt more informed, and I felt that that was what I needed in my head to see you know, that I've got to accept now that this, all these things are real on the screen and this was really my baby that's suffering all these things [sighs], but I was sad as well. How was that scan different from the dating scan? Christmas came and went in a blur of emotion, it felt so wrong to be celebrating when we were in such turmoil. Soon, the doctor came and inserted the tablets that would induce labour. Maybe our son would have overcome his problems, survived his illnesses, led a happy life. Enough for two weeks after he had been cremated. What would we like to do with the body? The contractions started very quickly and within an hour my waters had broken. We need to have your opinion'. 13/12/2020 20:45. Finally, Monday came and we went back to the hospital. or sort of light chat that we'd, we'd experienced before with previous scans. They said the brain was okay -, We were in there for a matter of minutes, literally -, In and out. And that, that was when things where it started going a bit wrong.
And, for a few hours, I'm convinced I've made a terrible mistake. 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. The baby was very, very small. I felt sad, but not the complete devastation of the last scan as they had seen a change of some sort. DS had 2 soft markers: talipes (club foot) and 'echogenic locii' somewhere - heart I think. The scan will find about half (50%) of those babies who have heart defects. 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), tbh, they never give you good news at scans. And I couldn't escape the feeling that I was being selfish. But other than that everything was fine. I can't remember the exact words but she said, 'There might be some fatal problems with your baby'. I agreed to an internal scan as the sonographer said we could get a better picture of what was happening. 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. You do not have to have the scan. This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. Perhaps because we are alone in this, it has brought my partner and me very close. This was a ray of hope for us. It doesn't remove the guilt, but I don't know what else to do. I don't know how we got through the next couple of days. I was given a leaflet and told to return four days later to see the consultant. And as soon as she said those words, both of us were like, 'Well what's wrong?'. Thick milky discharge at 14 weeks.tmi pic attached. There's nothing wrong, you know, we've had all the tests, everything's fine,' and being very upbeat about it all. So I suppose from that aspect, mind you having not been told that or sitting there, I wouldn't have thought necessarily that was odd. I tried to show him the notes and the photos. The doctor or midwife looking after you will let you know before you come. After preparing myself to face having to take the medication. Purpose of screening. Do you have any thoughts about that? Others said they were shocked because all the early diagnostic tests (e.g. All the time, the baby was kicking and I felt like a murderer waiting to strike her victim. The ultimate betrayal. 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. It was real. I was booked back in to discuss management options, if nothing had happened. But it is a soft marker for Edwards' syndrome. So it was quite common, this is what happens. And I assumed my partner would feel the same. factor is very strong. And I am slowly coming to terms with what has happened. Again, no notes can have been written down because the midwife asked the same question. Last reviewed July 2017. From losing my dad to his battle with cancer, to then having to face another battle with cancer and my mum; thankfully she pulled though. No sort of questions about, 'Do you want to know whether it's a boy or a girl?' The weeks since that day have been very weird. Next most likely (but actually in the minority) they identify something which whilst not 100% healthy is treatable. This does not mean there is anything to worry about. Or, at the very least, heart problems. Some people had underestimated how serious any abnormality found at this stage could be for the baby. 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'. Can you remember that minute. He was tiny, perfect and a Down's syndrome baby. Well send you a link to a feedback form. 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. Health professionals use the 18-20 week scan to examine the baby's size and position, and also to check if his/her brain, heart, lungs and other internal organs are developing as expected. It is essential that all practitioners performing fetal anomaly ultrasound screening should be trained to communicate abnormal findings to women, as such information is likely to have significant emotional impact. In this information, the word we refers to the NHS service that provides screening. The scan yet again confirmed things were not good, however the sac had grown. And you know, we were laughing and joking. This image shows a baby's face and hands at 20 weeks, and gives you an idea of what you'll be able to see at this scan. My wife turned the screen away from her. The results come in stages. Some of the other conditions, such as heart defects, are more difficult to see. He was sure the consultant on Monday would see that the measurements were completely normal and that there was nothing to worry about. It took 20 minutes to push him out. All my instincts were to protect my belly, yet here I was allowing someone to stick a huge needle into it. And even at that early stage it was beginning to sink in that there was something really not right. 18-20 week scans provide clinicians with more information than earlier scans because by18 weeks a healthy baby should be larger and better developed. Desperately trying to hold onto the glimmer of hope we'd been given. And it's like, I really wanted to see it and I didn't, and it was it was very mixed. Later, I did see and hold our baby. The termination would be averting a tragedy. I tried to keep positive. If you choose not to have the scan you can still have all other parts of your routine antenatal care. Being generous and kind generally happens only when you're happy. My son's congenital heart defect was detected at the 20 week scan and he had 2 other markers, no . And, faced with feeling sorry for myself or feeling sorry for my child, I know which I'd choose. Being deeply unhappy and kind to others at the same time is nigh on impossible. Went off for the 20-week scan, which you didn't, you weren't there, were you, for the first scan? But I still didn't want to be the one who stopped this baby's chance to live. Apologise for somehow doubting their right to be in this world. I thought I was going to burst into tears. So on the Monday we went in to see the senior sonographer, I think she was a consultant at the hospital. I used to think the feeling of your baby kicking inside you and the sight of a foot poking against your skin were the most fantastic things in the world. The "why me?" 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. You will be able to discuss this with your midwife or consultant. What happens at the second midwife appointment? So had to come back in a week's time for a scan, which again is quite a common thing I found out. So I took the test and jumped in the shower. I have horrible thoughts. What were babys measurements at 20 week scan? I want to stop having such horrible thoughts. And at that, I let out a scream I think. As though I went power mad for a week, killing my innocent unborn child, and now I am tainted for ever. I give pregnant women dirty looks. We went, I went in to the scanning room and they're quite bland facially anyway, whether everything's fine or not they just look at the screen to start off with and do measurements but I very quickly realised that the woman's demeanour wasn't, even for a bland face, was concerning. Some people had underestimated how serious any abnormality found at this stage could be for the baby. I know I could have delivered him in a quarter of the time, but I couldn't bear the thought of him leaving me. For example, the babys brain, kidneys, internal organs or bones may not have developed properly. No discussion, no quiet contemplation. The scan looks for 11 different conditions in your baby and cannot find everything that might be wrong. 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. Specialist scans
Some hospitals do offer earlier anomaly scans of the baby, but they will not show as much detail as scans performed between 18 and 20weeks. Some people we talked to had not had a 18-20-week scan, either because their babies' abnormalities had been detected by earlier . But for those few days they were torture. And thank God I did. These opinions do not represent the opinions of Tommys and are not advice from Tommy's. It felt as if we'd gone underground, that we were part of the criminal fraternity. So we gave up and said we'd arrange the funeral ourselves. I came back probably about 17 weeks pregnant and had the anomaly scan at 20 weeks and like most people expected everything to be fine and to come away with a lovely picture but unfortunately that isn't what happened. 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. I loved him instantly and didn't want to let him go. Because we knew that that wasn't normal, that wasn't what we'd experienced before, it wasn't just the, 'There's the arm, there's the leg, oh look the baby's moving'. Instinctively, did it feel right? But even if I was there, I still think I would have wanted to see the detail on the scan. In a small number of cases some very serious conditions are found. I couldn't work out what was taking so long and put it down to the doctor being young and inexperienced. We had to discuss what we wanted to do with the little body after delivery. 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. So I was, they couldn't actually finish the scan then, the baby was moving around too much, so they couldn't scan the heart and the stomach. So carried on with the plans, and, you know, planning for the, another baby to come along and then we went for a 20- week scan which is obviously the big one and very exciting, seeing all the arms and legs and once again everything was going fine, 'Look here's the baby, here's the length of baby'. News stories, speeches, letters and notices, Reports, analysis and official statistics, Data, Freedom of Information releases and corporate reports. 1. This scan takes place between 18 weeks and 20 weeks 6 days of pregnancy and is commonly called the 20-week scan. Within two days I was waiting in my local EPU unit for further tests. . But everything seemed fine and we'd been sitting waiting to see the consultant, and I'd had an examination on the bed. That was the first time I had heard him cry. And I can, the words that the scanning member of staff used, "Everything's fine", will stay with me forever. He looked fine. I went away and came back, and she couldn't get a good picture. So at 20 weeks I went for my scan with my husband, with my daughter, to get our photographs. This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/screening-tests-for-you-and-your-baby/11-physical-conditions-20-week-scan. He started to scan me with a cold expression, then told me, 'it didn't look good' and that 'my womb looked raggedy'. But it's bloody hard being miserable the whole time. I then found that soft markers means 'vague unproven suggestion of a link', and that echogenic locii are small concentrations of calcium which are incredibly common and harmless. Public Health England (PHE) created this information on behalf of the NHS. And still we asked to see a, Impact of the 20-week and later specialist scans. 80 percent of my pregnancies have ended in death and I felt like they were telling me those babies didn't matter. Rather sharply, my partner tried to explain. And they took me to another room and they explained that the baby had what they thought was ventriculomegaly or something. 'Yes, if that's okay with you,' kind of thing, like you do. Sometimes women were told that the sonographer had found a 'marker' or sign of a chromosomal condition and had to wait for an amniocentesis to confirm the findings. I was then told yet again bad news. I wanted to let nature take its course. Thankfully I was met by an amazing sonographer, she was compassionate and understanding. It was just a few little things like the kidneys were hard to find, and the stomach was hard to find, but that might be because it wasn't filled with fluid. So once again we were right back down, really no, really not knowing what to expect. I couldn't bring myself to push. 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. It felt so wrong. I guess the morphine made it easier. On the next shift, the new midwife asked us again. Again, we weren't understood. And I, my husband and I both ran our own business at the time so we were desperate to get back and do some work, and things were going really well, so.. Sometimes specialist scans such as 3D scans, or MRI scans, are used to examine the baby in greater detail. the amniocentesis) and the pregnancy had already ended, or because the scan was not routinely offered in their region 5 or more years ago. How common is it for 2nd baby to come early..? So I no longer trusted my instincts. Picture every packed football staduim up and down the country - all healthy pregnancies and births. An appointment should be arranged as soon as possible and ideally within three working days. 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. It was another consultant, who said, "I'm afraid I have some bad news - your baby has Down's syndrome." 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. Three midwives came and went. All the hopes, dreams, and plans we made with our little bumps has been taken away from us. We needed closure, to allow us to grieve properly. This is not what I imagined pregnancy to feel like', Baby Loss Awareness Week - Voice Five - Bryony Seabrook. In fact, interestingly enough, going sort of. With my oldest it turns out she has a minor thing that affects 1 in 1000 of the population and wont harm her at all it's just "there" and with my second the issue turned out to be nothing. It would have been nice to see someone straight away because I was in such shock. And with each one we had to have the same conversations. The screen may be directly facing them or at an angle. He started to scan me with a cold expression, then told me, "it didn't look good" and that "my womb looked raggedy". And of course some other measurements she needed to take like the width of the skull, which she couldn't take because the fetus was in the wrong position. There was complete silence during the scan. I think it's the same - in fact I think it was probably the same room, same consultant - and [sighs] I suppose it felt upsetting because at the dating scan you're full of hope and this scan we knew wasn't going to be good, we knew it was maybe the last time we would see the baby moving around. It seemed inconceivable that we would not be having a baby in May. Only this time, no cry came. At the time the same thing had, exactly the same thing had happened to my friend a month before, and her scan was absolutely fine. 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 decision to terminate the pregnancy was my partner's and mine. For once in my life, I had been organised. Sometimes specialist scans such as 3D scans, or MRI scans, are used to examine the baby in greater detail. As you felt that, you know, it was probably going to show lots of problems and it just wasn't what we wanted, but at the same time we needed to sort of see it and, we needed to prove it I suppose. It was the end of January, very end - about the 29th - I'd gone into, I'd gone into 5 months by then. We both thought we would like some good to come out of this horrible experience, so wanted to talk to somebody about the possibility of using the body for research purposes. And it was Christmas Eve and at the time I didn't think, the sonographer did spend a little bit of time scanning us and queried my dates several times and then explained that she couldn't quite see the baby's heart properly and would we come back in a couple of days? The nursery I had selected for our two-year-old son; my maternity leave; the bunk beds; the summer holiday suitable for a newborn baby. We were bound to each other because of the blood that was on both our hands. You're in and out and that was it. But here I was, minutes later, lying down, waiting. So we decided to book an early 10 week private scan. I sat and waited to be called for my scan. They would then re-test me in two days time. Many people were deeply affected by their experiences of the 20-week and subsequent specialist scans. To help us improve GOV.UK, wed like to know more about your visit today. But before he could speak, he, too, had broken down. Emma was 20 weeks' pregnant when a routine scan revealed that the baby she was expecting had Down's syndrome and heart problems. 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. So I lay on the bed and my partner sat next to me. We strongly advise readers not to take drugs that are not prescribed by your qualified healthcare provider. So it was, there was very, very little movement from the baby because I remembered first time round by that stage, you know, that the baby was quite big and it moved around a lot at a later scan. We were told to go to the hospital immediately. After she had taken all the measurements, the sonographer told us that she was concerned with the length of the baby's limbs in relation to the head. SO much upset and needless angst has been caused by 'soft markers' found at scans. So he went out for a walk. 'Soft markers'. If an abnormality is confirmed or suspected, referral is usually required, although some obvious major fetal abnormalities, such as anencephaly, may not require a second opinion (this should be decided by local guidelines). The doctor wanted to do another blood test to confirm a significant drop in my hormone levels. I wrote a few things down last night when we were trying to go over things, just to remind myself. He felt doing more blood tests would only cause me more discomfort and false hope. And also what the prognosis would mean for our two year old: now a very happy child, he would have a completely different childhood with such an ill sibling. 18-20 week scans provide clinicians with more information than earlier scans because by18 weeks a healthy baby should be larger and better developed. Have I misunderstood what's going on?' And it turned out the baby's heart wasn't forming properly, the chambers weren't forming properly. I was becoming numb to the whole process. Thinking back, I don't know how we left without him. He had to come to the decision by himself. I broke down and started hitting my disgusting body that had done this. You've had your, you know, you've had your triple test and everything was fine. Eventually, the doctor finished the scan and said that some of the baby's measurements were very small. 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. We bought little outfits, teddies, and researched all the vitamins and foods that I could eat. I wasn't ready to make a decision straight away, and I was told I could call them in the morning. Did you, how did that scan make you feel? If one of the conditions is found or suspected, the sonographer may ask for a second opinion from another member of staff. But no. For example, you may be offered further tests that have a risk of miscarriage. Had 34wk scan last week and all is well - of all the babies found to have a two vessel cord, was told less than 6% experience any growth issues etc. Registered office: Nicholas House, 3 Laurence Pountney Hill, London, EC4R 0BB. So it was just, we were coming up to the 20-week scan and I was just getting more relaxed, just actually starting to look at maybe baby catalogues or, you know, going down the baby aisle at the shops, which I'd always avoided. I believed at this point I had miscarried, they wanted me to come back I'm for a follow up scan. The same anxious wait for a little, pathetic cry. So at least then we went to that next stage prepared for the worst really. Health professionals use the 18-20 week scan to examine the baby's size and position, and also to check if his/her brain, heart, lungs and other internal organs are developing as expected. I still feel guilty, I still cry at random times. I felt the dread run through me. My partner tried to remain calm, and at my request rang my mum.