unfortunately the 20 week anomaly scan can pick up serious issues, hearing heart beats at midwife appointment doesn't let us know what's going on inside the body in detail. It was positive, and I felt elated. If you choose not to have the scan you can still have all other parts of your routine antenatal care. 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. The doctor or midwife looking after you will let you know before you come. You might be offered another test to find out for certain if your baby has one of the conditions. 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. The termination would be averting a tragedy. But here I was, minutes later, lying down, waiting. As I waited for the doctor back on the EPU unit. Christmas came and went in a blur of emotion, it felt so wrong to be celebrating when we were in such turmoil. The doctor told me he was 98% sure this was a failing twin pregnancy. The scan can provide information that may mean you have to make further, important decisions. It sounds crazy, but I just knew. I was young, I didn't need one. 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. The scan yet again confirmed things were not good, however the sac had grown. I think they perhaps could have done, if they had looked a bit closely. Several women had taken young children with them to the 20-week scan because they expected to see 'nice pictures of the baby'. Good luck has not come easily over the past few years. The consultant had said it wouldn't be like a normal delivery. We walked all the way home. By this time, we were tired. As I was called for my scan I was nervous and emotional. So choroid plexus cysts on their own, no problem, but if there's something else wrong, then that's a problem. It would be a personal tragedy for my partner and me, but that is all. I wrote a few things down last night when we were trying to go over things, just to remind myself. But he was not sure. As I say, I'm not a very nice person at the moment. Saturday came. He told me that they may want to do blood tests, but that 'he didn't see the point'. It went from bad, to worse, to worse, to dire, then to better. 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. It would have been nice to see someone straight away because I was in such shock. Registered office: Nicholas House, 3 Laurence Pountney Hill, London, EC4R 0BB. So when that happened to us I really didn't worry, I thought, you know, it was literally the baby was in awkward position, they couldn't see the heart and that was why. 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. But it's bloody hard being miserable the whole time. The ultimate betrayal. What were babys measurements at 20 week scan? It felt like a lifetime to reach our 12-week-scan. I can't remember the exact words but she said, 'There might be some fatal problems with your baby'. 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. On the next shift, the new midwife asked us again. 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. I know it is still early days. Then, three days later, I would go to the labour ward - the ward I had been expecting to visit in two and a half months. So we decided to book an early 10 week private scan. But you could see there was something wrong? And I couldn't escape the feeling that I was being selfish. So obviously quite relaxed. 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. The first midwife seemed to understand what we were trying to say, and said she would ask the doctor to come and talk to us. 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. 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. How common is it to get bad news at 20 week scan? | Mumsnet Likely to have serious medical problems all his life. This scan takes place between 18 weeks and 20 weeks 6 days of pregnancy and is commonly called the 20-week scan. This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. What are the chances of bad news at the 20 week scan | Mumsnet So I no longer trusted my instincts. Parents get a chance to emotionally adapt to news and plan. Many described how sonographers and doctors were very restrained and didn't speak at all until they had analysed all the baby's details. 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. There is always a chance that a baby may be born with a health issue that scans could not have identified. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor, midwife or hospital immediately. Try to relax and take it easy. And having read, since read my information on Edwards' syndrome, a good 85 per cent have problems with the heart. So we went home, me to rest in an attempt to prevent miscarriage, my partner to reassure us both. And still we asked to see a, Impact of the 20-week and later specialist scans. And I assumed my partner would feel the same. Having the scan does not hurt but the sonographer may need to apply slight pressure to get the best views of your baby. The sonographer will be able to tell you the results of the scan at the time. And you know, we were laughing and joking. Sometimes it is difficult to get good views of a baby. It's a bit at the back of the brain and - no I can't remember what it is - it's called, it's something that's called Dandy-Walker mal, The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) have produced a report on Termination of Pregnancy for Fetal Abnormality in England, Scotland and Wales (May 2010). The doctor explained the options I had to manage my miscarriage. We understand the real meaning of "shit happens". Within it are a number of recommendations for the communication of findings from ultrasounds. Let a mum know you're thinking of them send one of our personalised Mother's Day cards today, Home We couldn't say we'd lost the baby, because he was still kicking away, but we couldn't pretend everything was fine, either. If necessary, you will be referred to a specialist, possibly in another hospital. So at least then we went to that next stage prepared for the worst really. Sometimes a post mortem was needed to confirm the 20-week diagnosis to see if the baby had inherited a genetic problem (such as Fowler syndrome - see 'Resources'). 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. We didn't name him. And even at that early stage it was beginning to sink in that there was something really not right. After preparing myself to face having to take the medication. Why me and not you, you bastard? And nothing prepares you at all. So we left it there, and we didn't actually think that there was anything really to worry about after that scan. Could she possibly have something that's not been detected? We've got the same battle scars. It is impossible to escape them and each one underlines your loss. The baby was very, very small. Away you go'. I was sat on the sofa working, my son was at nursery and my partner was in the bath. And they took me to another room and they explained that the baby had what they thought was ventriculomegaly or something. Eventually, the doctor finished the scan and said that some of the baby's measurements were very small. And I wish that I'd been told at that point, that somebody had actually turned round to me and said, 'Look, I'm sorry, but I think there's something very wrong. Cardiac surgery can do some amazing things. The scan looks for 11 different conditions in your baby and cannot find everything that might be wrong. I swallowed the tablet and we left the building. Never lacking a sense of the dramatic, it felt as if we shared the responsibility for the terrible, dirty act that we had committed. Three midwives came and went. I believed at this point I had miscarried, they wanted me to come back I'm for a follow up scan. Many parents were shocked by findings from the 20-week and later scans. The pain was bearable but uncomfortable, the hospital rang me a few days later and asked me how I was. At this point it wasn't looking great. 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. Two days, after on Christmas Eve, (my 12 week date) I had more blood tests. We saw the consultant, who was reassuring, saying that he would rescan me and was sure everything would be fine. 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. How common is it to find anomolies at the 20 week scan? - Netmums We just couldn't use the words. In order for the sonographer to get good images of your baby, the scan is carried out in a dimly lit room. The scan will find about half (50%) of those babies who have heart defects. All my instincts were to protect my belly, yet here I was allowing someone to stick a huge needle into it. Just doing it. This might be uncomfortable. 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'. 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. 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. The baby was kicking so hard that I began to believe him. He started to scan me with a cold expression, then told me, 'it didn't look good' and that 'my womb looked raggedy'. And of course some other measurements she needed to take like the width of the skull, which she couldn't take because the fetus was in the wrong position. It felt as if we had gone power crazy. I remember thinking, 'Gosh' I now know it was a girl, I didn't know that then, that, 'She looks just like her brother'. This is not what I imagined pregnancy to feel like', Baby Loss Awareness Week - Voice Five - Bryony Seabrook. The hormone levels had dropped, but they wanted to scan me again. The milk came and stayed for what seemed like for ever. Not marginalised into being a victim. 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. 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. What happens at the second midwife appointment? And I'd been on the internet looking up all sorts of things and everything was so negative, it was very depressing, because I thought, 'Well, maybe they've made a mistake, or maybe it's something they can fix, I don't know'. 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. We were convinced everything would be OK. We bought a two tests that evening (quite lucky as I messed the first one up!). While some parents understood the clinician's restraint - even when they had to wait an hour or more for a definite diagnosis - others disliked being kept in suspense and wanted to be told what the clinician was thinking. It was horrible. Immediately I knew what decision we should take. It feels very lonely and isolating. I had no issues at my 20wk scan with DD - and neither did any of my antenatal group (9 mums). I have a terrible hatred of pregnant women and a new respect for infertile couples. Bad news at 20 week scan, please help. | Mumsnet She didn't say at the time that it was a major problem or that it was something to watch out for. But now that's changed. The same unique expression he had when he saw our two year old born. This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/screening-tests-for-you-and-your-baby/11-physical-conditions-20-week-scan. And, so they sent me home at that stage because they said the specialist wasn't available till the following day, which was awful. I was experiencing some light bleeding for the past few days. I had hope that the little bumps inside me were fighting just as much as I was to stay with me. And I thought that if I were faced with the possibility of having an amnio, hours of discussion would follow - I would spend days mulling it over. That was an extremely difficult day. We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services. You get extra care and monitoring as appropriate and baby is proactively treated. 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'. 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. Some say this estimate is really below the reality, and the out-of-pocket average costs are higher. We were denying him his life. Anyway we went in for the meeting with the consultant on this particular time, and we'd got to, I was 30 weeks pregnant by then. It was exactly like the labour I had with my first child. She asked me how far gone I thought we were, and if I could have been mistaken. And shortly after that, that scan we'd finished and the consultant leant back and said, 'I'm afraid we have some problems here'. The consultant explained that this was just very bad luck and not, as far as they knew, genetic. An appointment should be arranged as soon as possible and ideally within three working days. It felt so wrong. I had to stop myself from yanking out the needle. They would then re-test me in two days time. Not a good sign in a hospital consulting room. 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. I couldn't work out what was taking so long and put it down to the doctor being young and inexperienced. My partner was away working and was waiting to hear whether he was having a son or daughter. They sort of drew some diagrams, and they said, 'But we need to refer you to a specialist to confirm the diagnosis'. Could you tell? No, you couldn't see there was anything wrong. I think I was about 20 weeks cos they, the hospital I think did the 12 and the 20, that was their standard thing and, yeah, so I got the 20 weeks one. 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. Sometimes a post mortem was needed to confirm the 20-week diagnosis to see if the baby had inherited a genetic problem (such as Fowler syndrome - see '. At first, I still had to deal with the physical implications of having given birth. . 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! After the triple test you stop thinking, you stop thinking that anything can go wrong. He looked excited. That's fine. Nights were impossible. Another sick joke. 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. Eventually she got the measurements she wanted. And how wrong could they be? And they actually asked my husband to come in before they spoke to me. And I knew there was no way out. 18-20 week scans provide clinicians with more information than earlier scans because by18 weeks a healthy baby should be larger and better developed. Do you have any thoughts about that? And it's, I can't remember exactly what it was now, it's about where the brain is supposed to form. 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). Mm-hm. 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.
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