I am 18 weeks pregnant and just had an uultrasound yesterday and found out my baby only has a one artery in the umbilical cord (when there should be two). I was told by the not so friendly Dr. that this increases the chances of birth defects from 1 in 10 to 1 in 5. I promptly went home and did some research online to find out some info. Bad idea! Only found the negative stuff. Have any of you ever had a baby with this? Apparently this happens to 1 in 100 women and is the most common umbilical cord issue.
I should clarify - My baby has a two cord umbilical cord - there are normally three. Two arteries and one vein. My little peanut only has one vein and one artery.
Carole- when I was pregnant with my son we discovered at our 20 week u/s that he had a SUA. Of course I read online about all the negative things that could go wrong. My doctor closely monitored me while I was pregnant -I had monthly ultrasounds to make sure he was still growing and we had a fetal echocardiogram to make sure there were no heart problems. Everything turned out perfect, and my son was born 2 days before his due date at an average size (7 lbs 1oz, 21") and is now off the charts. Also, a good friend of mine also had SUA with her son and had absolutely no problems either! It is common, but talk with your OB, and make sure they stay on time of it. Lots of prayers for you and your little one!
Hi Carole,
I cannot offer information but I wanted to offer support to you. Be strong and pray for your child who is already a miracle. The internet will scare you with a ton of negative information and 9 times out of 10 the information will not apply to your child. Listen to your dr.'s and if they are not making you comfortable, don't hesitate to find someone who will listen to you and offer you support and sensitivity. It sounds like this is a common occurrence being it is 1 out of 100 women, (i don't know the statisitcs but i know that there are babies born on the minute) lots of babies. Take care of yourself and keep loving your baby.
A friend of mine had something like that too. There are 3 veins/arteries in the cord, she only had 2 of the 3. That child is almost 5, normal as can be and very smart. Pray every day.
Carole,
I know it is easy for me to say but don't worry. My niece had a two vessel cord as did the daughter of a friend at work. Both girls are doing very well and are happy and healthy. The best thing that you can do for your little girl is to make sure you are taking care of yourself( plenty of rest, eating well, and plenty of H2O)and most of all try not to stress yourself out. The internet can be very helpful and very confusing and alarming all at the same time. Your doc will probably order a few more ultrasounds than you would normally get and if everything looks okay then that is about all that they will do. Good luck and enjoy this time. Being a mom is the best!!
I'm 28 weeks pregnant and I have the same thing. It's a 2-vessel cord as opposed to a 3-vessel cord, which is the norm. That means there's only one artery and one vein. What my doc said is that it is absolutely possible to have a normal, healthy, full-term baby and that I should not stress about problems related to the two-vessel cord. Because of the cord though (and another high risk issue that I have), I have been monitored very closely throughout the pregnancy. They have sent me for a fetal echocardiogram, I have monthly ultrasounds and as of this week have started weekly fetal non-stress tests. It's all just to make sure that the baby's growth, breathing, heart rate, etc. is normal. And thankfully, everything with my little peanut is looking wonderful. So please try not to stress about this. I definitely don't think it's as severe as your doc made it sound. Good luck!
- Jen
I friend of mine just had a very healthy little girl that is now 9 mos old and she had the same complication! She didn't have any other problems and delivered naturally a very healthy baby girl. I would take it with a grain of salt most drs tend to be alarmists. There can very well be a birth defect but still 1 in 5 is still a big ratio
vicky
My sister-in-law had this with her first son. She was monitored more often, but my nephew is a happy, healthy, normal 5.5 year old now. I hope all the posts here help put you at ease that it is common and the outcome is usuallya positive one. It will help the baby if you stay positive and if you ever feel something isn't right, just call your doctor - a mother's intuition is amazaing! Don't sit and stress about it, get answers.
Oh my goodness Carole, I had the same experience exactly with our second child. The dr was a jerk, gave us no info, and then I went home and read alot of horrible stuff on the internet. I contacted our pediatrician and asked him what he knew about SUA. I called him because he is a dr that I know I can talk to. Also he, of course, sees babies that have had SUA. He then got me an appt with a perinatalogist. The perinatalogist spent alot of time with us and did a very thorough ultrasound. She told us that if an SUA baby checks out fine on u/s then the baby is at no greater risk for any defects than a baby without SUA. In that case the only risks are that the baby might be small and arrive early or there could be an internal cord accident if there isn't enough water to cushion the cord (because an SUA cord is thinner). Because of this I started going to the OB (a new one, I dropped the jerk :) ) every week starting at 33 weeks. Every week I had a non stress test and a fluid check. The non stress test just involves getting hooked up to a baby monitor (it is a thing strapped to your belly) and seeing that the baby's heart rate jumps when he/she moves. During the test you want the baby to move, so you want the baby to be awake. To make this happen I would always eat a granola bar as the nurse was hooking me up. That always got her to move and she would pass the test very quickly. The fluid check is just a quick u/s to check to make sure there is enough fluid. You will want to make sure that you stay well hydrated so that there is enough fluid.
Our baby was born perfectly healthy. She had no problems at all with labor and has been healthy and very active. She is now 9 months old and is close to 30in long and is already walking. At birth she was 22in long and over 9lbs. She was also 2 weeks late. So, she beat the odds in every way.
Please try and relax and enjoy the rest of your pregnancy. DO NOT read anything on the internet...it will make you worried. Find a dr who will take the time to talk to you and who you can trust. It is totally ok to switch OBs during your pregnancy, I did it during both of mine (the first time was because we moved).
I went to a perineonatologist in Kennedy hospital in washington township. they told me after quad four screening my baby could have downs syndrome. if you do not like your doctor switch now. i am suprised they did not send you to a specialist. my baby is eight months old now and is very healthy. he does not have downs syndrome. good luck and congratulations.
I'm so sorry to hear that you're going through this. I'm not familiar with SUA, but I also had a high risk pregnancy that involved a lot of bloodwork, ultrasounds (twice weekly) and four appointments a week. It's exhausting, emotionally and physically. I know it sounds trite, but you have to take things one day at a time. And today, your baby is healthy and growing. Worry about tomorrow, tomorrow. And always remember that no matter what happens, you'll deal with it.
The internet is wonderful but too much information can be scary too, I don't know of this condition but I do know that babies are very resilient and that God has created this wonderful baby of yours and if there is a problem, HE can heal it, my friend is due in May and had a placental tear in the first trimester and we just prayed and asked God to heal her and protect baby, and you know what her bleeding stopped and she has had an awesome pregnancy since and the Dr's can't medically explain this miracle - so don't lose hope or get discouraged!
the only thing i can suggest for reading info is to go to askdrsears.com . He has an amazing way of presenting the real facts in a non-scary way.
also, if your dr isn't friendly, i say go find a different one! your dr is going to add to or take away from your whole experience and it sounds like he's already taking away. THERE ARE GREAT DOCTORS OUT THERE! Change now! call around and ask questions. this is your experience and if your doctor isn't willing to guide you and make you feel god, the change it. I did it in my second pregnancy b/c i was so unhappy with my dr for my first born, I said to myself, not again. i will not settle for a doctor that is not all ther for me. when i realized i was unhappy with my dr for my second, i switched like 4 months into it and had a terriffic doctor for my son. he truly made such a difference.
My sister-in-law had this same issue and gave birth to a beautiful healthy baby boy who will be one next month. I think doctors are pretty steril when discussing issues b/c they deal with them more often then us so they loose their sensitivity but it's still frightening. She said that more people than she realized had it once she discussed it. Try to stay positive and my prayers are with you for a healthy baby.
Carol, I am 33 years old and 32 weeks pregnant, due May 9th, w/ my third girl and my baby has a Velementous cord. It is not fully attched to the placenta and it unravels into three seperate pieces. The Dr's were not so kind to start off w/ me, and I did what you did and went home and read all these weird things on the Interent. My baby right now, is growing great and is healthy. We have had some bumpy news along the way, but right now as of this day everything looks good. I did change my diet huge I only ate things that would be healthy for the baby and I limited my activites as not to strain her too much. Everything will be fine, listen to what the Dr's say but realize they will give you worst case senerio first, but that doesn't mean it's def. going to happen to you.
My friend had the same diagnosis for her first pregnancy. She and her husband had a number of follow-up ultrasounds and met with specialists at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. They were even able to have a 4-D ultrasound of their baby and I think they were even able to take home a video of it! All of their ultrasounds showed nothing else abnormal and their daughter was born perfectly healthy. She's almost 4 now and she's completely fine.
I had a two vessel cord with my second child. He was born normal, healthy and with no problems. He is going to be one in a few weeks. My doctors were wonderful, they didn't stress me out about it and it is more common that you realize. They will just monitor you more closely with ultrasounds, etc. They see so much more these days with ultrasounds that it is sometimes scary! The worst thing you can do is get upset about it, that will not help the baby either! I'm sorry your doctor was so cold about it; just don't stress about it, stay healthy and stay off the internet - too much info!
Hello :)
I had a two vessel cord with my daughter. They caught it here at the hospital I was going to deliver at while doing my regular sonogram. They promptly sent me within a week to a maternal fetal medicine specilist in Harrisburg. They were great and I went up regularly for sonograms to measure my daughter's growth. They told me you should normally have 3 vessels. My daughters cord was only 2. I noticed you said your baby only has 1 and the Dr. said you should normally have 2???? The specilist I went to even did scans of the umbilical cord and was able to show me the 2 vessels. Although there were a few spots in the cord that it did branch back out to 3 vessels. Wierd. BUT everything was fine with her. Has your Dr. reccomended sending you to a specialist??? My OB decided she would have me scheduled for an induced labor about a week before my orginal due date because when they baby gets close to term he/she can lay on the cord and cut off blood flw and nutrients. The doctor did weekly sonogram to check my daughter's weight, so that if she got to big they would induce earlier. They told me since I was to be induced that it would probably take longer to deliver but I was induced at noon...started having contractions around 5 or 5:30pm-ish and had my daughter at 9:47pm with only 20 mins. of pushing! My OB was impressed b/c they said inducing usually takes WAY longer. :) Try not to worry. That is the hardest part! Hope I was of some help...feel free to send me a message if you have any questions!
First let me say CONGRATS on your pregnancy. My son who just turned 3 had a single umbilical artery and was born very healthy. I was a nervous wreck because my quad screen came back with a 1:42 chance of having a baby with Down Syndrome. After genetic counseling we had a Level II u/s which showed the SUA. I was told that this was a "soft sign" for Down Syndrome which freaked me out even more. I chose not to do the amnio and was just monitored more closely for the growth of the baby. I has monthly Level II u/s. There were no problems and he is an active, healthy boy. We did not have any complications and he does not have Down Syndrome. He does have a speech disorder with which he is getting therapy for and is doing very well. He is talking in sentences and is understood about 50-75% of the time. Lots of progress this past year. Hopefully he won't need it once he gets to school age. Hope that helps to alleviate some of your anxiety! Try to relax and enjoy your pregnancy. Best Wishes!!