He sounded like a wild animal in pain, deep pain. The same unique expression he had when he saw our two year old born. It was sick. By this time, we were tired. And so this one can't tell you anything, it's pictures, you're going, you're going to see your baby, you're going to get pictures. The contractions started very quickly and within an hour my waters had broken. No, you couldn't see there was anything wrong. I had to take a tablet there and then, under the supervision of a nurse, to end the pregnancy. The doctor told me he was 98% sure this was a failing twin pregnancy. The rarest scenario is that the baby is severely ill and choices will need to be made. We were denying him his life. When he came back, he agreed on a termination. It was another consultant, who said, "I'm afraid I have some bad news - your baby has Down's syndrome." And that, that was when things where it started going a bit wrong. Likely to have serious medical problems all his life. I felt empty, scared, guilty and incredibly heartbroken. 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. 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. 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). 18-20 week scans provide clinicians with more information than earlier scans because by18 weeks a healthy baby should be larger and better developed. It is as though our pain means we've earned the right to be taken more seriously. Sam squeezed my hand and told me it was ok. Then I picked myself up. 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. But even if I was there, I still think I would have wanted to see the detail on the scan. The doctor explained the options I had to manage my miscarriage. We had the 20 week scan yesterday and got some devastating news. You've had your, you know, you've had your triple test and everything was fine. 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. 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. Wed like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services. But now that's changed. It was a bit worrying but on the plus side I got an extra couple of scans and an extra couple of pictures. As I was called for my scan I was nervous and emotional. I believed at this point I had miscarried, they wanted me to come back I'm for a follow up scan. 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. The thing about that which I felt was difficult is that we could tell when being scanned that there was something very seriously wrong. The baby was very, very small. But before he could speak, he, too, had broken down. And the first few things they said it didn't sound as thing, as though things were terribly wrong. Never being able to look after himself. Emma was 20 weeks' pregnant when a routine scan revealed that the baby she was expecting had Down's syndrome and heart problems. I was sent home with a leaflet, strong painkillers and two types of antibiotics. Yeah - in, stomach, out. What were babys measurements at 20 week scan? b>Bad news at 20 week scan. We scattered his ashes over a bunch of snowdrops. And you could see, where you should have a picture of 4 chambers, you could really see 2. As I left the room to compose myself. Unfortunately I was not met with a compassionate sonographer. 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. 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. But everything seemed fine and we'd been sitting waiting to see the consultant, and I'd had an examination on the bed. 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 only thing you're thinking now is the birth, and what if something goes wrong in the birth? By 7pm, I still hadn't delivered the baby. It went from bad, to worse, to worse, to dire, then to better. And, it does not occur to you in the slightest. hi ladies. I had no idea if we were doing the "right" thing. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor, midwife or hospital immediately. The scan will find about half (50%) of those babies who have heart defects. And before they gave me any of the results she asked a colleague to come and told me she wanted to check something, with a colleague, and by then I was getting very concerned because I'd never had that happen before. Why me and not you, you bastard? And for that whole time, my partner and I were both crying uncontrollably. And it turned out the baby's heart wasn't forming properly, the chambers weren't forming properly. Find more information and details of support groups on NHS.UK. Like many things, the theory is very different from the reality. 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. See more information about the 20-week ultrasound scan. Surely he couldn't have missed anything else that is so serious x. 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. We need to have your opinion'. I did. As though I went power mad for a week, killing my innocent unborn child, and now I am tainted for ever. He was tiny, perfect and a Down's syndrome baby. We decided that we wanted medication to help me. 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). The scan yet again confirmed things were not good, however the sac had grown. Many people were deeply affected by their experiences of the 20-week and subsequent specialist scans. Could you tell? And nothing prepares you at all. This was on the Friday. And I said, I was still laughing, and I thought he was joking with me, and he said now I sort of could tell from his face that by that point he wasn't really joking anymore. Where we were living then at the time you only had a scan at 20 weeks. 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. It was just sort of deadpan faces, very serious looks, someone else coming to check. But it's bloody hard being miserable the whole time. 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. Some parents wondered if it was possible to have the same scan done at 16 weeks rather than 20 weeks. 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. 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. The 18-20 week antenatal scan and further tests. I know its hard- but i really wouldnt worry about it too much as the worry will stress you and your body out. Within two days I was waiting in my local EPU unit for further tests. 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. I tried to show him the notes and the photos. That's fine. Instinctively, did it feel right? 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. We would terminate the pregnancy. Soon, the doctor came and inserted the tablets that would induce labour. She advised I be referred to the EPU to be assessed. So we decided to book an early 10 week private scan. The clinic advised a follow up scan the week after, to check on progress and to see what to do next. Baby loss stories He started to scan me with a cold expression, then told me, "it didn't look good" and that "my womb looked raggedy". Some say this estimate is really below the reality, and the out-of-pocket average costs are higher. The same sense of expectation. We're still not at the end of our journey, but we're much further along. 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. Some parents wondered if it was possible to have the same scan done at 16 weeks rather than 20 weeks. 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'. 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 was far too much power; neither of us wanted it. 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. It was probably all right but hadn't had any fluid in it at the moment. I had hope that the little bumps inside me were fighting just as much as I was to stay with me. The chances that anything bad will be discovered are v v small. I was another one who did get bad news at the 20 week scan. Smiling at myself and picturing me and Sam becoming parents. But for those few days they were torture. There was an extra digit on one of the hands. However painful and traumatic the labour was, it was better than what would happen at the end of it. We bought a two tests that evening (quite lucky as I messed the first one up!). 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. And that was Monday afternoon. Saturday came. Just wonder whether anyone had ever been told? Well send you a link to a feedback form. Your mind has closed to the possibility that there could be anything wrong. I thought surely everything is ok, as they couldn't detect twins the week before. My heart goes out to you OP. For once in my life, I had been organised. 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. I managed to tell my mum, who said she would come with us to the hospital. chances of bad news at 20 week scan mumsnet. Not surprisingly, people aren't quite sure how to deal with me. 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. There, I would give birth. But he was not sure. And as soon as she said those words, both of us were like, 'Well what's wrong?'. Some of the other conditions, such as heart defects, are more difficult to see. It was horrible. I broke down and started hitting my disgusting body that had done this. She endured many agonising rounds of scans and tests, and unfortunately met with some unhelpful attitudes from some healthcare professionals. So instead, I was advised to go home and let nature take its course. Yeah, yeah. You have rejected additional cookies. Read full disclaimer. And so we had to go out a couple of times, [wife] had to walk around, and she had a drink of water, which is supposed to sort of change things inside, or help the baby turn around or something because the sonographer couldn't get the measurements she wanted. So we decided that, to have the scan and we went along I think early in the week for that, and spent quite a lot of time with the consultant after that. And everybody knows and everything is right. The week that followed was an agonising wait. And shortly after that, that scan we'd finished and the consultant leant back and said, 'I'm afraid we have some problems here'. I took my vitamins, stuck to the healthy diet and put on a brave face. Next most likely (but actually in the minority) they identify something which whilst not 100% healthy is treatable. I then had to wait in the room along with many other patients for an hour so they could observe me. And I'm glad I did and she's glad she didn't. It's part of our family. 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. I was disgusted - disgusted that such a tablet existed, let alone that I should have to take it. Nights were impossible. The results come in stages. Abortion has never raised any moral dilemmas for me and I am an atheist, so there are no religious issues. He told me that they may want to do blood tests, but that 'he didn't see the point'. And I assumed my partner would feel the same. [Husband] couldn't make it. So that was it. 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.'. Parents get a chance to emotionally adapt to news and plan. I would be put to sleep, and when I woke up I wouldn't be pregnant any more. I give obsessively to charity, especially those linked to sick children. I had to wait for a doctor to explain the situation. . We were bound to each other because of the blood that was on both our hands. If you are not sure, you can contact them and ask. Eventually, the doctor finished the scan and said that some of the baby's measurements were very small. It can be such a shock so do whatever you need to feel better. This is not what I imagined pregnancy to feel like', Baby Loss Awareness Week - Voice Five - Bryony Seabrook. You're in and out and that was it. My partner tried to remain calm, and at my request rang my mum. Thanks girls, it's amazing how protected our babies are in there isn't it?! Our baby was beautiful. He then told us what the prognosis would mean for the child. This scan takes place between 18 weeks and 20 weeks 6 days of pregnancy and is commonly called the 20-week scan. Later, I did see and hold our baby. I couldn't bear to see the baby and asked the midwife to take him away immediately. 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. So I no longer trusted my instincts. Originally I hadn't wanted to go down that road. 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. 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'. Nice people shouldn't hear about what we'd done. 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. 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. Despite this new discovery, the sonographer was still concerned. Within it are a number of recommendations for the communication of findings from ultrasounds. She brought up a picture of the heart on the screen. Could she possibly have something that's not been detected? Have I misunderstood what's going on?' By the time I left the hospital, I was in shock. I faced another internal scan where I began to feel helpless and alone. Last reviewed July 2017. I had to wait yet another sleepless night. Specialist scans 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. Some people we talked to had not had a 18-20-week scan, either because their babies' abnormalities had been detected by earlier diagnostic tests (e.g. I want to enjoy my son again, without any reservations. 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. We bought little outfits, teddies, and researched all the vitamins and foods that I could eat. The same rush of excitement. 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.. 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. During the examination, sonographers need to keep the screen in a position that gives them a good view of your baby. Sometimes specialist scans such as 3D scans, or MRI scans, are used to examine the baby in greater detail. Christmas came and went in a blur of emotion, it felt so wrong to be celebrating when we were in such turmoil. blood tests, CVS) were clear - and as one woman put it, 'after the triple test* (Down's syndrome screening) you stop thinking anything can go wrong'. 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). Possibly with hindsight we could have been more worried about it, but was probably a good thing we weren't, because we weren't worried about anything basically. They sort of drew some diagrams, and they said, 'But we need to refer you to a specialist to confirm the diagnosis'. He started to scan me with a cold expression, then told me, 'it didn't look good' and that 'my womb looked raggedy'. But other than that everything was fine. I felt crushed, I wanted him to at least acknowledge what had been found already. So we hid in our house. We went in, had a scan, I can't remember the exact sequence of events because the baby was still in the wrong position. And she said that, you know, as the, if the baby did develop further there would probably be other problems with internal organs that weren't really that visible at that stage. I was wondering if anyone has been is this situation and can give me a glimmer of hope. 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. After preparing myself to face having to take the medication. When I see a child with Down's syndrome, I have a tremendous need to explain myself and apologise a million times over. Seeing your baby on a screen can be really exciting. . It is extremely rare for these pregnancies to reach term as they typically spontaneously miscarry early in pregnancy. I feel empty and incomplete. She describes having to make a momentous decision very quickly, and the ferment of relief, guilt and grief that followed, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. It would have been nice to see someone straight away because I was in such shock. 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. There's nothing wrong, you know, we've had all the tests, everything's fine,' and being very upbeat about it all. Still, the consultant thought things would be OK. And they, sort of two of them were looking at the scan machine and then they sort of switched everything off and said, 'Oh, I think we have, might have a problem'. I think the whole experience has made me a pretty nasty person. Enough for two weeks after he had been cremated. In fact, interestingly enough, going sort of. 13/12/2020 20:45. 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. Thick milky discharge at 14 weeks.tmi pic attached. An appointment should be arranged as soon as possible and ideally within three working days. Well, at the regional hospital it was a 3-D scan. But no. Please ask your hospital about this before your appointment. And having read, since read my information on Edwards' syndrome, a good 85 per cent have problems with the heart. Sam followed and I broke down. I remained positive, we researched lots of cases of mistaken dates, inconclusive scans, and compared them to our situation; scrutinising everything to try and believe it was all one big misunderstanding. Let a mum know you're thinking of them send one of our personalised Mother's Day cards today, Home And my husband, we never got to sit next to each other in the consulting room, my husband was across the room from me, and I was sat next to the consultant, and we were laughing and joking with him about, you know, the home delivery, and everything was going to be, 'Are you still on for the home delivery?' They would then re-test me in two days time. SO much upset and needless angst has been caused by 'soft markers' found at scans. The blood test confirmed it was twins. 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. It was over. The pain was excruciating, but nothing compared to how I felt inside. So and you could see the exomphalus, this little pouch, which was obviously just the intestines where they are. Do you have any thoughts about that? And, sometimes, I wish I had invited my whole family into the hospital room to see him. It felt as if we had gone power crazy. We talked all night and thanked God for crap television. 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. 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. A few people recalled how frightened and alarmed they became when they sensed that the atmosphere in the scanning room changed in an instant from 'jokey' to serious when the baby's problems were detected. Actually you could tell from the brain development as he scanned up through the chambers of the brain, that one quarter of the brain, one chamber was not evident. 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. Never lacking a sense of the dramatic, it felt as if we shared the responsibility for the terrible, dirty act that we had committed. On January 18, my baby was born, at 23 weeks - a little boy. So had to come back in a week's time for a scan, which again is quite a common thing I found out. On the third day, we got a phone call. So on the Monday we went in to see the senior sonographer, I think she was a consultant at the hospital. What would we like to do with the body? It took 20 minutes to push him out. And they took me to another room and they explained that the baby had what they thought was ventriculomegaly or something. We've got the same battle scars. I remember thinking, 'that doesn't look quite right'. I remember thinking, 'Gosh' I now know it was a girl, I didn't know that then, that, 'She looks just like her brother'. By my own hand, I had to end the pregnancy. And in this instance the scan was very evident that there was something very seriously 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.
chances of bad news at 20 week scan mumsnet