Ultrasound Shows Possible Growth Issue - Measurement Problem

Hi D. --

Over the years I have worked with so many moms whose doctor has a concern about baby due to blood work or ultrasound. Unfortunately, errors and misreading happen, especially on ultrasounds. Virtually everyone I know that has had a test or ultrasound that raised concern, has delivered a healthy baby.

Best of health,
S.

I had no personal experience with this, but did teach a parenting program for years and had several women in my program who had one issue or another identified on tests that did not show up when the baby was born. Two were told they would have babies with Downs and neither did. What it did do was to drain every bit of joy out of the pregnancy and replace happiness with anxiety and worry.

All is as nature intended--have faith that this will all be ok....It most likely is a technical problem with the measurements and your baby is fine.

oh D.. So sorry you have to wait for so long. i know you must be going through hard times. just wanted to show some support. i was advised to have the amnio done after blood results. i said no. it wasn't going to change anything, i would still have carried the pregnancy to the end either way so i didn't want to risk miscarriage. twins born healthy.
a friend of mine, after an ultrasound and blood work was told highly likely you're carrying a downs syndrome child and amnio was also suggested to her. she thought about it and decided against amnio.
she gave birth to a healthy boy.
so you see they need to cover all their basis. if measurements didn't fall into a certain category they have to warn you of what could be happening. but they don't know for sure.
ok, one more, and then i'll stop. i knew i was carrying twins from the get go (invitro). and at around maybe 8 or 9 weeks they could not find the heartbeat of one of my babies. also, was very small in size. i was told this could be a vanishing twin and that it happens very often. so i went home devastated. i was already attached to my twins. it didn't help that at that time i had been bleeding for weeks into pregnancy. next time i had the ultrasound my twins were still there, and so were the heartbeats. this went on and off until i gave birth. they were always unable to find one of the heartbeats for different reasons. i was always on needless going into those checkups. mine was a high risk pregnancy and if i remember correctly i had about two ultrasounds/sonograms a month. a lot, right? and almost every other time i was sent home with 'bad feelings'
so, what they said to you, you need to take with a grain of salt. like you said, you have five more weeks to go. if you can, please please, put your mind in a happy place. it's out of your hands, and i really hope when you post after you deliver you'll have awesome news. either way, i will be thinking of you as i am sure a lot of other people will.
hang in there mama.

D.'
YES!!
And don't get crazy!!
Easier said than done, I know, but I will tell you that I was 44 and pregnant with our daughter. (my first pregnancy!)
It was our 19 week Ultra Sound and I too did not do Amnio b/c of the chance of losing the pregnancy.
So, the dr. measured everything and all was fine.
He then noticed that my daughter's bowel was illuminated...very bright on the US and that it should have been black and hollow like her stomach and other organs.
He said that in it of itself, he didn't think it was anything since her other measurements were fine, but that he WAS CONCERNED and needed me to return in 2 weeks so he could keep a closer eye on it. (If anything else had measured wrong, he would have thought down's syndrome too)

So, he was there measuring other things and he says,"You know, sometimes we see this with Cystic Fibrosis"
MY heart hit the floor...I filled up in tears. The dr. felt terrble that he got me upset, but he didn't know that I had already tested positive as a carrier of the disease.
(My brother had it). My husband was standing there and the Dr said to me, "But you've both been tested, right?"
And I said I was, but that my husband had not gone for the testing yet. I had been telling him and telling him over and over that the Drs wanted him tested but he was always too busy and "after all, (he) didn't have that in his family". You never know...most of the family were still in Italy even though we were 3rd generation American....and we recently found out that my husband's last name is not really his last name b/c his greatgrandfather died when his grandfather was just a year old. When his grandmother remarried, the new husband adopted him and he took his name...so there was no real way of knowing the family background!
Anyway, the Dr turned to my husband and demanded that he be tested.
D., I can't tell you how upset I was. I saw my brother suffer his entire life. I saw him struggle to take every breath and I saw him die.
I knew what my baby would be in for and I just was devastated! My little girl would be sick!!
But then I suddenly got a calmness about me. My brother loved me very much and he lived his life through myself and my sister. I know that if there was anyway that he could intercede, then my daughter would not have CF.
As it turns out, my husband did get tested and he was negative. The next ultra sound, her bowel was normal and they said it was probably my huge fibroids that had bled and the baby swallowed the blood. Once she passed it all out in her waste, all was fine.
Thank God, my daughter is very healthy and happy.
PLEASE relax as best you can.
Your baby will be fine.
And even if there is something with the length of the arms, your baby will be beautiful and so loved by all of you.
God bless you and that wonderful baby you are carrying inside you. Hang in there D.!
I will pray for your baby too.
P.
PLUS your other measurements on previous ultra sounds have been fine.
I'll bet you that it was a measurement error and your baby is just exactly the way he/she should be!!

D.,

I went through something very similar. After 8 months of normal sonograms, plus an amnio that came out normal, at 8 months I had a sonogram to see how big the baby was, I was measuring larger than normal. They said he was about 7-8 pounds but there was a mass on his neck that they couldn't identify. Off I went to the high risk doctor, who did not see any mass but wouldn't rule out that nothing was there. I was then sent to Cornell University Medical Center to see "the top dr in the counrty". He said he didn't see anything and that sonograms are tricky because they are just grey shadows. He said I would have a normal healthy baby and not to worry. Of course I felt a lot better, but there was that black cloud that followed me around for the remaining weeks. My doctor still recommended a C-section, just in case, and I gave birth to a normal healthy boy with not a mark on his neck or anywhere else.

I'm sure your baby is fine. Its hard to accurately measure a shadow, especially one that moves.

Congratulations,
R.

Hi D.,

I was 41 yrs old when my first, & only, baby was born. I was high risk due to my age & the fact that this was my first baby. You have already previously delivered healthy babies. Nevertheless, my mother was still a practicing labor and delivery nurse (this was 4 years ago). My OB, my mother & my own research indicated that there was no real reason for me to accept an amnio (earlier on in my pregnancy than you are now) as I was planning on having my baby whether he showed to have a birth defect or not - so to have that knowledge was not to do anything more than subject me & my baby to possible risks that could result from the amnio just for the purposes of knowing - and that knowing is not certain either since it only gives you percentages toward definite diagnoses - you don't know for certain til birth, which I was determined to go forward with. So for that, you might want to see about planning for any special needs interventions in the event that your child may be born w/ downs or dwarfism however that is still only a possible if.
The medical establishment can only gain more financially by tests - what could your baby or you gain, beyond possible risks from the amnio, at this point? Unless it would alter your decision around having or keeping your baby - and then remember, tests are not always accurate or correct.
The ultrasounds and many tests available in the medical industry can be helpful tools for preventing or addressing a problem earlier on however they can also be stress inducing and therefore not so useful but interfering w/ an otherwise healthy state simply by virtue of the stress it can bring on especially when there is a big if--
The best thing for you at this point is to take great care of yourself, remain calm & as stress free as you can while preparing for your child and I hope your medical provider can only be of help to you with this. Best of Luck to you!

Wow! D. you sound so brave. How a doctor can drop a bombshell like that and say don't loose sleep over it is beyond me!!! My kids are older so they didn't have such high tech ultrasounds back then. I would have thought if there was some type of growth issue it would have shown up way before this ultrasound. With all of the tests they do today if there were anything wrong it should have shown up by now. I just wanted you to know I will pray for you and your beautiful baby. Good luck and keep us posted.

You sound like a loving mother. Congratulations on your third.

Just know that it will be what it will be and you will love this baby like the others. Be certain to have your support system in place because it really does take a village to raise a child.

Relax and be open to your ability to love unconditionally.

I am sorry, I don't have any advice. It must be hard to wait but you have to go with the doctor's. I just have a question. I don't understand why at 30 you are considered high risk? Most of my friends are in their early 30's, including me and we didn't go to a high risk doctor. Is there something else that may contribute to the ultrasound issue?

I have not had that problem, but I do know that when I had that test done (forgot what it was called, it's optional) and they said that I could have the amnio test done because it could mean the baby had down's. I went to check with another dr at another hospital and they checked the brain on the U/S and he found nothing wrong with the brain and if I still want to proceed to have amnio done and my husband and I said no, if the baby came out with down's, fine, we will deal with it and raise the baby anyhow. My child is 4 1/2, no down's and already knows his alphabet by recognition, capital and lower case and knows how to write them and is ready to read. No problem whatsoever. I realized that sometimes people have amnio to abort the baby if the baby had a disability. What if we were that kind of people and did that to him and not know that the child was normal. Don't worry about the baby, take whatever comes and I pray that the baby is healthy. Please let me and/or us know about the baby once the baby is born. I am curious. Also, CONGRATS ON YOUR BABY TO BE BORN!!! God bless you and your family!!