chances of bad news at 20 week scan mumsnet

Immediately I knew what decision we should take. The scan can provide information that may mean you have to make further, important decisions. Abortion has never raised any moral dilemmas for me and I am an atheist, so there are no religious issues. 'Yes, if that's okay with you,' kind of thing, like you do. This scan takes place between 18 weeks and 20 weeks 6 days of pregnancy and is commonly called the 20-week scan. It feels very lonely and isolating. He started to scan me with a cold expression, then told me - Tommy's My belly was growing and I was feeling great. No one else attended and we didn't have a service. And that was a terrible moment to be sort of hanging on, waiting. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Registered office: Nicholas House, 3 Laurence Pountney Hill, London, EC4R 0BB. So at 20 weeks I went for my scan with my husband, with my daughter, to get our photographs. Thankfully I was met by an amazing sonographer, she was compassionate and understanding. So choroid plexus cysts on their own, no problem, but if there's something else wrong, then that's a problem. Wishing to be anywhere, but here being told the same agonising truth over and . Eventually she got the measurements she wanted. To help us improve GOV.UK, wed like to know more about your visit today. The blood test confirmed it was twins. The scan will find about half (50%) of those babies who have heart defects. And attribute some blame to them. I thought surely everything is ok, as they couldn't detect twins the week before. At this point it wasn't looking great. Sam reassured me, but the guilt had hit me along with the feeling that our world was falling apart. However painful and traumatic the labour was, it was better than what would happen at the end of it. And at that, I let out a scream I think. I broke down and started hitting my disgusting body that had done this. 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! 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. Limitations of the 18-20 week scan chances of bad news at 20 week scan mumsnet. 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. 80 percent of my pregnancies have ended in death and I felt like they were telling me those babies didn't matter. I was becoming numb to the whole process. I couldn't have the added responsibility for changing his mind. Desperately trying to hold onto the glimmer of hope we'd been given. All my plans were beginning to fall down. And my partner and I would have a completely different life from the one we'd imagined. And as soon as she said those words, both of us were like, 'Well what's wrong?'. The following is a quote from their report: If the scan reveals either a suspected or confirmed abnormality, the woman should be informed by the sonographer at the time of the scan. 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'. He then told us what the prognosis would mean for the child. Despite this new discovery, the sonographer was still concerned. My partner watched the baby come out, and for a split second I saw a look of joy on his face. It felt so wrong. 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. Is it the same scan or is it the same equipment? Our position in our families has shifted. It is also sometimes referred to as the mid-pregnancy scan. Last updated July 2017. But he was wrong. Next most likely (but actually in the minority) they identify something which whilst not 100% healthy is treatable. And this baby sort of floated, and occasionally there was a slight movement, but it was very you could almost see that he was really poorly just from looking at the screen. We talked about the different sorts of pain relief I could have and I opted for a morphine drip, which I could control. Public Health England (PHE) created this information on behalf of the NHS. And, faced with feeling sorry for myself or feeling sorry for my child, I know which I'd choose. So I trusted him. Sometimes specialist scans such as 3D scans, or MRI scans, are used to examine the baby in greater detail. This does not mean there is anything to worry about. It was probably all right but hadn't had any fluid in it at the moment. The sonographer told me to take the notes, and the scan photos with me so they could review them also. We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services. I agreed to an internal scan as the sonographer said we could get a better picture of what was happening. 18-20 week scans provide clinicians with more information than earlier scans because by18 weeks a healthy baby should be larger and better developed. I loved him instantly and didn't want to let him go. Most hospitals do not allow children to attend scans as childcare is not usually available. You could see her face, and the major aspect that was, that was the indication of what was wrong was the thickening at the back of the neck in this instance, which, when you're looking at a fetus is, you know, sort of half a centimetre thicker or not is completely immaterial to me, and would look like a completely normal neck, but from the point of view of the consultant was severely abnormal. There was complete silence during the scan. 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 didn't have a clue. Thick milky discharge at 14 weeks.tmi pic attached. And, sometimes, I wish I had invited my whole family into the hospital room to see him. Nights were impossible. And thank God I did. Some things can be seen more clearly than others. I was sent home with a leaflet, strong painkillers and two types of antibiotics. 12/12/2012 22:41. 17/12/2020 17:13. 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. I endured 12 hours of medication and in the early hours February 7, 56 days after my first scan (at nearly 18 weeks), I miscarried our babies. And that, that was when things where it started going a bit wrong. The scan will look in detail at your babys bones, heart, brain, spinal cord, face, kidneys and abdomen. 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. Likely to have serious medical problems all his life. So I no longer trusted my instincts. The screen may be directly facing them or at an angle. 13/12/2020 20:45. For example, the babys brain, kidneys, internal organs or bones may not have developed properly. The sonographer then passes a hand-held probe over your skin to examine the babys body. This was on the Friday. What were babys measurements at 20 week scan? And with each one we had to have the same conversations. Some say this estimate is really below the reality, and the out-of-pocket average costs are higher. By this point I had stopped bleeding, this caused problems. Soon, the doctor came and inserted the tablets that would induce labour. And they took me to another room and they explained that the baby had what they thought was ventriculomegaly or something. There was a very marked lack of amniotic fluid which made it difficult, not even for the scanners to see, that made the picture of the scan look very, very different. 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'. I think at that time she had come to terms better with the fact that this baby was going to be terminated, and I don't think I was quite there. But even if I was there, I still think I would have wanted to see the detail on the scan. They would then re-test me in two days time. It took 20 minutes to push him out. 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. I could hardly breathe. My partner was away working and was waiting to hear whether he was having a son or daughter. I felt sad, but not the complete devastation of the last scan as they had seen a change of some sort. My wife turned the screen away from her. 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. The consultant explained that this was just very bad luck and not, as far as they knew, genetic. I still feel guilty, I still cry at random times. 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. I wasn't unduly worried at all. 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 wanted to talk about it, but I didn't. An appointment should be arranged as soon as possible and ideally within three working days. 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). I was then told yet again bad news. If you choose not to have the scan you can still have all other parts of your routine antenatal care. The midwife was on the verge of tears and I felt responsible. And everybody knows and everything is right. BabyCenter. Read full disclaimer. Being deeply unhappy and kind to others at the same time is nigh on impossible. It was sick. It was just sort of deadpan faces, very serious looks, someone else coming to check. After that I got, I, it was about in, in 19-, hang on a minute, 2001 I got pregnant again, slightly unexpectedly. Do you have any thoughts about that? To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account. I couldn't bring myself to push. Most scans show that babies seem to be developing as expected, and none of the 11 conditions are found. On January 18, my baby was born, at 23 weeks - a little boy. All my instincts were to protect my belly, yet here I was allowing someone to stick a huge needle into it. We talked all night and thanked God for crap television. . As two youngest siblings, we were both permanently stuck in the irresponsible, childish role. You may like someone to come with you to the scan appointment. In some cases concerns in utero fix themselves sometimes needs treatment. And you know, we were laughing and joking. 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 did. I didn't sleep that night I don't think. You've had a scan, you've had the blood tests, you've been good. 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. Entering the labour ward, I waited for someone to say, "Go home, you are 16 weeks too early." How common is it to find anomolies at the 20 week scan? - Netmums or sort of light chat that we'd, we'd experienced before with previous scans. Our baby was beautiful. Unfortunately I was not met with a compassionate sonographer. 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. Forcing my hand to my mouth to take the tablet was probably the hardest thing I have ever done. I wrote a few things down last night when we were trying to go over things, just to remind myself. That they could have spotted something, or not? Getting through the 20 week scan - My BabyManual The "why me?" I had to take a tablet there and then, under the supervision of a nurse, to end the pregnancy. 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. Many parents were shocked by findings from the 20-week and later scans. I took my vitamins, stuck to the healthy diet and put on a brave face. But with time although we will never forget, I know we will be ok again. After half an hour of lying on the bed, I was starting to get nervous, but was excited to find out that the baby would be a boy and that I could see his little heart beating strongly. I tried not to sit still for too long, because then I became too aware of the little thing inside me. And it was just a bit of a shock because it's not really what you want to hear - you don't really expect that. 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'. I had to wait yet another sleepless night. It was, 'Oh we'll come back to that'. We bought little outfits, teddies, and researched all the vitamins and foods that I could eat. There's nothing wrong, you know, we've had all the tests, everything's fine,' and being very upbeat about it all. The doctor told me he was 98% sure this was a failing twin pregnancy. Hugely upset that to think that the baby was so poorly. I didn't want to go through anymore scans. It will take only 2 minutes to fill in. You will then be asked to raise your top to your chest and lower your skirt or trousers to your hips. Have I misunderstood what's going on?' Enough for two weeks after he had been cremated. I wanted to let nature take its course. 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 had hope that the little bumps inside me were fighting just as much as I was to stay with me. And I know I can't hurry up the process of grieving. What are the chances of bad news at the 20 week scan | Mumsnet After preparing myself to face having to take the medication. I would be put to sleep, and when I woke up I wouldn't be pregnant any more. And so we talked about it euphemistically, never saying the word "research". He felt doing more blood tests would only cause me more discomfort and false hope. I just feel very unlucky. My son's congenital heart defect was detected at the 20 week scan and he had 2 other markers, no . Thanks girls, it's amazing how protected our babies are in there isn't it?! I can't remember the exact words but she said, 'There might be some fatal problems with your baby'. 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. 'Soft markers'. 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. Previous scans in this pregnancy and with my first child had been fun - a chance to see the baby wriggling around and perhaps find out its sex. It was all going wrong and I wanted to get as far away from the hospital as possible. There, I would give birth. Instead, we were shown to a room slightly away from the rest of the ward and the midwife stayed with us to talk through what was going to happen. Living in this world must be unbearable for them. Find more information and details of support groups on NHS.UK. I have a terrible hatred of pregnant women and a new respect for infertile couples. 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. It sounds crazy, but I just knew. All pregnant women should be given the booklet by their midwife or GP Screening tests for you and your baby by Public Health England, which gives detailed information about the types of scan offered and what they are looking for. We had the same conversation, but obviously were not making any sense to her at all. 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'. I had no issues at my 20wk scan with DD - and neither did any of my antenatal group (9 mums). I think the whole experience has made me a pretty nasty person. (See 'Resources'). And that was extraordinary to see the detail that that could offer. Chances of bad news at 20 week scan mumsnet I know it is still early days. 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. Somehow, I walked from the sofa up to the bathroom and told my partner. It is impossible to escape them and each one underlines your loss. The milk came and stayed for what seemed like for ever. Just doing it. 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. But that was too easy. We bought a two tests that evening (quite lucky as I messed the first one up!). I hadn't thought about the mechanics of such a late termination, but had assumed it would mean some kind of operation. A black and white picture of your baby will then be seen on the ultrasound screen. 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. Well send you a link to a feedback form. I tried to keep positive. 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. They said the brain was okay -, We were in there for a matter of minutes, literally -, In and out. The baby was very, very small. This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. These were said to be soft markers fo a range of trisomies, 2 of which were incompatible with life. Just that really! Could you tell? At that point, I got very not upset but quite sort of strongly severe sort of with the people at the hospital saying, 'Look, you know, that's 24 hours, possibly a 48 hours' wait - that's not something that's tenable. And even at that early stage it was beginning to sink in that there was something really not right. b>Bad news at 20 week scan. It seemed a very arbitrary system, and so you quite often sat outside in the waiting room for a couple of hours before you actually got to see the consultant, which was, seemed you know, I kind of remember thinking before we went in to see him on the particular day when we found out there was a problem, 'Why are we sitting here? Life expectancy of 30 or 40. I was then told yet again bad news. These opinions do not represent the opinions of Tommys and are not advice from Tommy's. But no. But other than that everything was fine. The scan yet again confirmed things were not good, however the sac had grown. So she said, 'Come back on Monday. This short video explains screening for 11 physical conditions in pregnancy. But it was very evident. The same anticipation. We've got the same battle scars. I pray it's just her heart but I can't see anything else is wrong as I have been scanned by a consultant since I was 14 weeks and every time he has said everything looks okay and she is growing consistently. Maybe. No one else but my partner saw how similar he was to our son. He had to come to the decision by himself. We had the 20 week scan yesterday and got some devastating news. 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. She just said, 'It's a bit short, it needs to be checked' again basically. So he was about two weeks smaller than what he should have been. Seated in the antenatal clinic with lots of expectant mothers with baby bumps. Last reviewed July 2017. No sort of questions about, 'Do you want to know whether it's a boy or a girl?' I wasn't ready to make a decision straight away, and I was told I could call them in the morning. We'd just spent some time away on a, on a summer holiday and come back expecting to have this scan and be told, 'All fine. Some people had underestimated how serious any abnormality found at this stage could be for the baby. I popped out from work, telling my boss I'd be back in half an hour. 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.

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