If necessary, you will be referred to a specialist, possibly in another hospital. The thing about that which I felt was difficult is that we could tell when being scanned that there was something very seriously wrong. For many other women, the 18-20 week scan was the point at which they discovered the baby had serious problems. Nights were impossible. She brought up a picture of the heart on the screen. That they could have spotted something, or not? 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. I had my little leaflet, printed off leaflet about choroid plexus cysts. Within it are a number of recommendations for the communication of findings from ultrasounds. And at that point I don't think we, I don't think we realised that there might have to be a decision, because we'd talked about it with, with Down's and the other possible problems, but at this point it was, well okay what can be done to fix the problem - because yes the heart's not developing properly but there must be something we can do. Fine, go on my own. I feel empty and incomplete. 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.'. I popped out from work, telling my boss I'd be back in half an hour. We walked all the way home. But my brain had been given a train of thought that was impossible to stop. I had to wait for a doctor to explain the situation. And they took me into another room. He started to scan me with a cold expression, then told me, "it didn't look good" and that "my womb looked raggedy". I was sat on the sofa working, my son was at nursery and my partner was in the bath. 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. So we decided to book an early 10 week private scan. Again, we weren't understood. It feels very lonely and isolating. I broke down and started hitting my disgusting body that had done this. I took my vitamins, stuck to the healthy diet and put on a brave face. 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. My partner spent the weekend trying to convince me that things were OK. or sort of light chat that we'd, we'd experienced before with previous scans. But you know I knew we had, we had to make a decision that was right for the baby as well. They sort of drew some diagrams, and they said, 'But we need to refer you to a specialist to confirm the diagnosis'. I then had to wait in the room along with many other patients for an hour so they could observe me. You've had your, you know, you've had your triple test and everything was fine. I noticed the box of tissues on the table. I had an appointment with my consultant 2 days later, and again he said, you know, 'Very common - shouldn't worry about it too much, you know, if, the problem is if they find anything else wrong'. Yeah, yeah. That's fine. I've still had no cramps or bleeding so fingers crossed everything is ok I just couldn't believe I fell down the stairs, I can't remember the last time I ever did that! We needed closure, to allow us to grieve properly. It would be a personal tragedy for my partner and me, but that is all. 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. To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account. This was on the Friday. We went in, had a scan, I can't remember the exact sequence of events because the baby was still in the wrong position. 20 week scans look for 11 different anomalies as a rule, however, indicators (markers) are not terribly reliable and in all the literature I found, the targets set for stonographers look like they only pick up around 50% or less of these variants. In fact, interestingly enough, going sort of. The rarest scenario is that the baby is severely ill and choices will need to be made. Reading individual, real-life experiences can be a helpful resource, but it is never a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment from a qualified health care provider. No one else but my partner saw how similar he was to our son. Picture every packed football staduim up and down the country - all healthy pregnancies and births. The scan can provide information that may mean you have to make further, important decisions. Several women had taken young children with them to the 20-week scan because they expected to see 'nice pictures of the baby'. It's quite common, perhaps 1 in 10 they find these, and within a few weeks they disappear. We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services. We've joined the grown-ups and we both feel very different. 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. If this happens, you will be offered one further scan by 23 weeks of pregnancy. 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. The consultant showed us the letter with our result on and, yes, there were the words "Down's syndrome". So at least then we went to that next stage prepared for the worst really. All the hopes, dreams, and plans we made with our little bumps has been taken away from us. But with time although we will never forget, I know we will be ok again. 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 we gave up and said we'd arrange the funeral ourselves. I have horrible thoughts. We thought it would all be over very quickly but, in fact, it was another 11 hours before the baby was delivered. 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 mum arrived early to look after our son, and my partner and I got a cab to the hospital. Some stories I hear are amazing! We would terminate the pregnancy. I was young, I didn't need one. So we decided to book an early 10 week private scan. Being generous and kind generally happens only when you're happy. Two days, after on Christmas Eve, (my 12 week date) I had more blood tests. And I can just remember flashing a look at you as if to say, 'Have I made a mistake here somewhere? Try to relax and take it easy. 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'. But he was wrong. Limitations of the 18-20 week scan We saw the consultant, who was reassuring, saying that he would rescan me and was sure everything would be fine. The scan was inconclusive, but the size of my little bump was measuring a lot smaller than it should have for 10 weeks. I couldn't have the added responsibility for changing his mind. Registered office: Nicholas House, 3 Laurence Pountney Hill, London, EC4R 0BB. I don't know how we got through the next couple of days. It seemed inconceivable that we would not be having a baby in May. No, you couldn't see there was anything wrong. I hated my body and hated every feeling I was having. This short video explains screening for 11 physical conditions in pregnancy. 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. What would we like to do with the body? I didn't really know what that was. For five months my body had known there was something wrong, yet I had felt fantastic. 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. . This does not mean there is anything to worry about. We didn't feel we could tell anyone what was happening. We talked about the different sorts of pain relief I could have and I opted for a morphine drip, which I could control. Wishing to be anywhere, but here being told the same agonising truth over and . 12/12/2012 22:41. Sometimes it is difficult to get good views of a baby. The 18-20 week antenatal scan and further tests, Ending the pregnancy for family & personal reasons, Deciding whether to see, hold and name the baby, Photographs and other mementoes of the baby, Saying goodbye to the baby - services & funerals, Coping with bereavement - women's experiences, Coping with bereavement - men's experiences, Men's ideas about their role in ending a pregnancy. Desperately trying to hold onto the glimmer of hope we'd been given. 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.. For once in my life, I had been organised. 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'. Last updated July 2017. 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. And at that, I let out a scream I think. And I felt like a murderer. Parents get a chance to emotionally adapt to news and plan. 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). When I told him what had happened, he refused to believe anything was wrong and said he'd sort it out when he came home. And, so they sent me home at that stage because they said the specialist wasn't available till the following day, which was awful. We spent the next few weeks in a happy bubble. 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]. So choroid plexus cysts on their own, no problem, but if there's something else wrong, then that's a problem. So we went home really and I sort of had to think about it all night. The first words I said were: "If there's anything wrong then it's my fault", I had been working 70, nearly 80 hours the previous weeks and pushed myself hard. I felt sad, but not the complete devastation of the last scan as they had seen a change of some sort. You've had, you've had your Down's Syndrome check and that's okay. I guess the morphine made it easier. But the closeness has remained after the drama has died down. The milk came and stayed for what seemed like for ever. You might be offered another test to find out for certain if your baby has one of the conditions. Well, at the regional hospital it was a 3-D scan. It wasn't measuring at all the right measurements for the age - there was a heart defect, the limbs were sort of distorted, the arms were, you know - you could see that the arms were very sort of contracted, the hands were contracted. So I took the test and jumped in the shower. So that was it. My partner really wanted me to, and by that time I had no sense of what was right or what I should do. 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 was real. The same anticipation. As I say, I'm not a very nice person at the moment. She didn't want to see the baby. I was willing the results to be normal. This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/screening-tests-for-you-and-your-baby/11-physical-conditions-20-week-scan. 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. Mm-hm. This scan takes place between 18 weeks and 20 weeks 6 days of pregnancy and is commonly called the 20-week scan. 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. For women who have been given distressing news about their baby during the scan, there should be a health professional available to provide immediate support. We left for home feeling completely numb. After the triple test you stop thinking, you stop thinking that anything can go wrong. So even if anomolies are found, they don't always mean a problem.. x. I had issues at the 20 weeks scan with both of mine. 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 didn't want to be convincing him to agree with me. 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 . My partner was away working and was waiting to hear whether he was having a son or daughter. He sounded like a wild animal in pain, deep pain. Surely he couldn't have missed anything else that is so serious x. I think they perhaps could have done, if they had looked a bit closely. I sat and waited to be called for my scan. As I lay down, and the sonographer started, I could see there was something wrong. 80 percent of my pregnancies have ended in death and I felt like they were telling me those babies didn't matter. [Husband] couldn't make it. Just that really! As though I went power mad for a week, killing my innocent unborn child, and now I am tainted for ever. But before he could speak, he, too, had broken down. 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. 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 felt like a lifetime to reach our 12-week-scan. Three midwives came and went. 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. He suggested he perform an amniocentesis immediately, to rule out any chromosomal problems. When I see a child with Down's syndrome, I have a tremendous need to explain myself and apologise a million times over. What were babys measurements at 20 week scan? And you know, we were laughing and joking. I had to take a tablet there and then, under the supervision of a nurse, to end the pregnancy. Has anyone been told the wrong sex at 20 week scan? No, we really didn't, with hindsight we probably should have, but not at all, it never occurred to us to be worried about it. The hormone levels had dropped, but they wanted to scan me again. So I was a bit ignorant of the kind of things, you know, what the scans were really doing - maybe it was, a bit na've I think. And in this instance the scan was very evident that there was something very seriously wrong. I get terribly irritated by my close friends and family. You can change your cookie settings at any time. At first, I still had to deal with the physical implications of having given birth. If you choose not to have the scan you can still have all other parts of your routine antenatal care. Not surprisingly, people aren't quite sure how to deal with me. Cardiac surgery can do some amazing things. No one else attended and we didn't have a service. 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. We had the 20 week scan yesterday and got some devastating news. Baby loss support 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 instead, I was advised to go home and let nature take its course. Good luck has not come easily over the past few years. 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. He had to come to the decision by himself. I think there might be a problem'. These were said to be soft markers fo a range of trisomies, 2 of which were incompatible with life. In some cases concerns in utero fix themselves sometimes needs treatment. Thinking back, I don't know how we left without him. We couldn't say we'd lost the baby, because he was still kicking away, but we couldn't pretend everything was fine, either.
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