On January 18, my baby was born, at 23 weeks - a little boy. 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. And you could see, where you should have a picture of 4 chambers, you could really see 2. We strongly advise readers not to take drugs that are not prescribed by your qualified healthcare provider. Sometimes it is difficult to get good views of a baby. This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. See you in -. We understand the real meaning of "shit happens". So we decided to book an early 10 week private scan. It felt so wrong. 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. That he was small. Dont worry we wont send you spam or share your email address with anyone. I've realised that being a nice person is a luxury some can't afford. And so began the most bizarre day of my life. Good luck has not come easily over the past few years. Seated in the antenatal clinic with lots of expectant mothers with baby bumps. And, for a few hours, I'm convinced I've made a terrible mistake. So once again we were right back down, really no, really not knowing what to expect. 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. Some people we talked to had not had a 18-20-week scan, either because their babies' abnormalities had been detected by earlier . 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. It is also sometimes referred to as the mid-pregnancy scan. Can't seem to find info on the Internet. And then all of a sudden, I was still laughing and we were all very upbeat, and then suddenly, he suddenly said, but I was still, still laughing, and he said to me, 'Oh, there might be a problem, there might be a problem with the, I think this baby has hydrocephalus'. It was another consultant, who said, "I'm afraid I have some bad news - your baby has Down's syndrome." My mum arrived early to look after our son, and my partner and I got a cab to the hospital. Severe chromosomal conditions such as Edwards' syndrome are now often picked up in the first trimester antenatal screening but itwill usually be more obviousat the 18- 20 week scan, though usually a firm diagnosis will not be made until one or two specialists have weighed up all available evidence about the baby - which usually means that another expert needs to scan the baby again, or until the woman has had an amniocentesis. Limitations of the 18-20 week scan We couldn't say we'd lost the baby, because he was still kicking away, but we couldn't pretend everything was fine, either. 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. So and you could see the exomphalus, this little pouch, which was obviously just the intestines where they are. 15/02/2014 08:02. Eventually, the midwife said to us very sweetly, "I think we should deliver the baby now." Hugely upset that to think that the baby was so poorly. They said the brain was okay -, We were in there for a matter of minutes, literally -, In and out. It was positive, and I felt elated. 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. I felt empty, scared, guilty and incredibly heartbroken. He's now had the all clear and is wriggling round on . Slightly marked from our peers. We had so much power, we could decide that this little thing should die. Seeing your baby on a screen can be really exciting. If you are not sure, you can contact them and ask. There were also two spots on his heart, which were "soft markers" for Down's syndrome. Our week-by-week PREGNANCY emails are a must for parents-to-be. My partner tried to remain calm, and at my request rang my mum. Intellectually, I knew this was not the case. The blood test confirmed it was twins. I didn't sleep that night I don't think. Because, when you're angry with the world for dealing you such a shit time, you begin to hate the people who populate it. And then I can't remember an awful lot more about that scan apart from that feeling of searching of how to react in an unknown situation - your brain's kind of trying to work out what to say, what to do, but I had no idea what to say or what to do and I think my first thought was, does that mean our first daughter's okay? We bought a two tests that evening (quite lucky as I messed the first one up!). 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. 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. I want to stop having such horrible thoughts. We decided that we wanted medication to help me. Desperately trying to hold onto the glimmer of hope we'd been given. I can't remember the exact words but she said, 'There might be some fatal problems with your baby'. Why me and not you, you bastard? 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. You might be offered another test to find out for certain if your baby has one of the conditions. 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.. I can feel my child kick, it responds when he shouts at football - I mean literally, this baby used to dance around whenever he'd like scream at a goal - and there cannot be anything wrong with this child because it's part of us already. But he was not sure. We talked about the different sorts of pain relief I could have and I opted for a morphine drip, which I could control. They sort of drew some diagrams, and they said, 'But we need to refer you to a specialist to confirm the diagnosis'. You have rejected additional cookies. The sonographer will be able to tell you the results of the scan at the time. We talked all night and thanked God for crap television. I remember thinking, 'that doesn't look quite right'. We've got the same battle scars. It was far too much power; neither of us wanted it. Instinctively, did it feel right? And also what the prognosis would mean for our two year old: now a very happy child, he would have a completely different childhood with such an ill sibling. I let out an animal scream and [wife] kind of leapt onto me on the bed. In some very serious rare cases, where no treatment is possible, the baby will die soon after it is born or during pregnancy. Find more information and details of support groups on NHS.UK. All the time, the baby was kicking and I felt like a murderer waiting to strike her victim. If this happens, you will be offered one further scan by 23 weeks of pregnancy. 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), tbh, they never give you good news at scans. 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. I know its hard- but i really wouldnt worry about it too much as the worry will stress you and your body out. I have horrible thoughts. 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. (See. There was complete silence during the scan. I am a darker, harder version of myself. During the examination, sonographers need to keep the screen in a position that gives them a good view of your baby. Never being able to look after himself. But the consultant had found more spots on the heart and the measurements were the same. Went off for the 20-week scan, which you didn't, you weren't there, were you, for the first scan? Registered office: Nicholas House, 3 Laurence Pountney Hill, London, EC4R 0BB. I ran into the bedroom to tell Sam, who was ecstatic. Some things can be seen more clearly than others. 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. The baby was kicking so hard that I began to believe him. 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. Several women had taken young children with them to the 20-week scan because they expected to see 'nice pictures of the baby'. You've had your, you know, you've had your triple test and everything was fine. That was the first time I had heard him cry. This time, they discovered the baby has a two vessel cord (only one vessel from placenta to baby instead of two) and I've been monitored to make sure the baby grows properly and kidneys aren't damaged. Instead, I had to raise a glass of water to my mouth, take a swig and swallow the tablet. 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. These were said to be soft markers fo a range of trisomies, 2 of which were incompatible with life. And, faced with feeling sorry for myself or feeling sorry for my child, I know which I'd choose. It's part of our family. The doctor gave her consent, and I took the four little tablets. 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 want to be nice again. So we'd gone through the Down's syndrome or worse scare, we'd had conversations about what we would do, if it was confirmed that it was Down's syndrome or another syndrome, another sort of chromosome abnormality. I think what everyone is saying is that most likely outcome is that there are no problems at all. I couldn't have the added responsibility for changing his mind. I went home feeling crushed; Sam and I both felt helpless. And how wrong could they be? It's quite common, perhaps 1 in 10 they find these, and within a few weeks they disappear. 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. The doctor didn't come. Getting through the 20 week scan - My BabyManual And I knew there was no way out. And that, that was when things where it started going a bit wrong. I wasn't unduly worried at all. I didn't really know what that was. And it was Christmas Eve and at the time I didn't think, the sonographer did spend a little bit of time scanning us and queried my dates several times and then explained that she couldn't quite see the baby's heart properly and would we come back in a couple of days? So choroid plexus cysts on their own, no problem, but if there's something else wrong, then that's a problem. Being deeply unhappy and kind to others at the same time is nigh on impossible. Some of the other conditions, such as heart defects, are more difficult to see. Scans cannot find all conditions. I didn't want to go through anymore scans. 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. Sometimes specialist scans such as 3D scans, or MRI scans, are used to examine the baby in greater detail. We had the baby cremated. I couldn't really believe what they were saying. the amniocentesis) and the pregnancy had already ended, or because the scan was not routinely offered in their region 5 or more years ago. So we hid in our house. Living in this world must be unbearable for them. And at that point I don't think we, I don't think we realised that there might have to be a decision, because we'd talked about it with, with Down's and the other possible problems, but at this point it was, well okay what can be done to fix the problem - because yes the heart's not developing properly but there must be something we can do. It went from bad, to worse, to worse, to dire, then to better. This one cannot show you anything, that's what's inside your mind. He started to scan me with a cold expression, then told me - Tommy's 17/12/2020 17:13. The weeks since that day have been very weird. 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). And everybody knows and everything is right. We scattered his ashes over a bunch of snowdrops. Those two weeks were agonising for us both. That was an extremely difficult day. [Husband] couldn't make it. Nights were impossible. I wanted to let nature take its course. b>Bad news at 20 week scan. The nursery I had selected for our two-year-old son; my maternity leave; the bunk beds; the summer holiday suitable for a newborn baby. 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. Within it are a number of recommendations for the communication of findings from ultrasounds. For once in my life, I had been organised. He started to scan me with a cold expression, then told me, 'it didn't look good' and that 'my womb looked raggedy'. Despite this new discovery, the sonographer was still concerned. I wasn't ready to make a decision straight away, and I was told I could call them in the morning. 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. I felt the dread run through me. Smiling at myself and picturing me and Sam becoming parents. Could you tell? I took my vitamins, stuck to the healthy diet and put on a brave face. So it was quite common, this is what happens. And I, and, I felt the weight of deciding what to do about it. Some parents wondered if it was possible to have the same scan done at 16 weeks rather than 20 weeks. It was the end of January, very end - about the 29th - I'd gone into, I'd gone into 5 months by then. . It would be a personal tragedy for my partner and me, but that is all. And that was a terrible moment to be sort of hanging on, waiting. 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. Thankfully I was met by an amazing sonographer, she was compassionate and understanding. News stories, speeches, letters and notices, Reports, analysis and official statistics, Data, Freedom of Information releases and corporate reports. It was just a few little things like the kidneys were hard to find, and the stomach was hard to find, but that might be because it wasn't filled with fluid. I did. Not surprisingly, people aren't quite sure how to deal with me. There was cause for concern. I thought surely everything is ok, as they couldn't detect twins the week before. I was told this was common as my body and hormones still thought I was pregnant. Some people want to find out if their baby has one of the 11 conditions and some do not. The clinic advised a follow up scan the week after, to check on progress and to see what to do next. So he was about two weeks smaller than what he should have been. These opinions do not represent the opinions of Tommys and are not advice from Tommy's. We need to have your opinion'. It is impossible to escape them and each one underlines your loss. Check benefits and financial support you can get, Find out about the Energy Bills Support Scheme, NHS fetal anomaly screening programme (FASP), Screening tests for you and your baby (STFYAYB), nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3, more information and details of support groups. No one else attended and we didn't have a service. Within two days I was waiting in my local EPU unit for further tests. I mean, you just, you're just overwhelmed, it's so much fun. 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. The 18-20 week antenatal scan and further tests. Reading individual, real-life experiences can be a helpful resource, but it is never a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment from a qualified health care provider. He looked fine. For five months my body had known there was something wrong, yet I had felt fantastic. I had no idea if we were doing the "right" thing. So he went out for a walk. I had to stop myself from yanking out the needle. It is extremely rare for these pregnancies to reach term as they typically spontaneously miscarry early in pregnancy. I had hope that the little bumps inside me were fighting just as much as I was to stay with me. There's nothing wrong, you know, we've had all the tests, everything's fine,' and being very upbeat about it all. We've joined the grown-ups and we both feel very different. He bluntly told me, he wasn't interested in whatever was seen before, he was only going to go by what he saw that day. 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. 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? Chances of bad news at 20 week scan mumsnet There was an extra digit on one of the hands. I didn't want to be convincing him to agree with me. In most cases the scan will show that your baby appears to be developing as expected but sometimes a condition is found or suspected. My partner watched the baby come out, and for a split second I saw a look of joy on his face. I have a terrible hatred of pregnant women and a new respect for infertile couples. Emma was 20 weeks' pregnant when a routine scan revealed that the baby she was expecting had Down's syndrome and heart problems. 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. 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. 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. A company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales company number 3266897. And in this instance the scan was very evident that there was something very seriously wrong. 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. The same rush of excitement. And as soon as she said those words, both of us were like, 'Well what's wrong?'. And the next day we went back to the hospital and we had another scan with a specialist, and he confirmed it was a condition called holoprosencephaly, which I'd never heard of any of these words before, they were just such long words. It was interesting - well it was fantastic to see this fetus and to see this child that was yours that was horribly ill - but you didn't really get much opportunity to see that because the consultant was more about measurements and all sorts of blood flow and various other screens coming up. We were told to go to the hospital immediately. This was a ray of hope for us. The scan looks for 11 different conditions in your baby and cannot find everything that might be wrong. And that was scanning up from the above the head, then you were coming up through the child's head, so you were seeing the chambers in the brain, sort of it was evident in all four chambers of the brain, then suddenly one chamber was empty. So I lay on the bed and my partner sat next to me. Our position in our families has shifted. My partner spent the weekend trying to convince me that things were OK. Several parents said they would have preferred being told something, even it was vague. 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. I had to wait yet another sleepless night. I was becoming numb to the whole process. I had an appointment with my consultant 2 days later, and again he said, you know, 'Very common - shouldn't worry about it too much, you know, if, the problem is if they find anything else wrong'. 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 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. We spent the next few weeks in a happy bubble. When I see a child with Down's syndrome, I have a tremendous need to explain myself and apologise a million times over. We didn't name him. There is always a chance that a baby may be born with a health issue that scans could not have identified. I did think it was a bit strange that she wasn't talking, and then she sort of said, 'Oh, I think there's a problem. The first result, which tells you if the baby has Down's syndrome, is ready in three days, but the other chromosomal problems cannot be eliminated for up to three weeks. My partner went out with him, wanting to see him. And I could see, before she even said anything I could see that there was something wrong with the heart. 18-20 week scans provide clinicians with more information than earlier scans because by18 weeks a healthy baby should be larger and better developed. 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. Some say this estimate is really below the reality, and the out-of-pocket average costs are higher. But you could see there was something wrong? 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. It is as though our pain means we've earned the right to be taken more seriously. And they took us out of the scanning room, into a more quiet room while they typed up the report. I felt sad, but not the complete devastation of the last scan as they had seen a change of some sort. Baby loss support Sometimes specialist scans such as 3D scans, or MRI scans, are used to examine the baby in greater detail. You will then be asked to raise your top to your chest and lower your skirt or trousers to your hips. I travelled to work that day feeling amazing. 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 tried to show him the notes and the photos. 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. Some people had underestimated how serious any abnormality found at this stage could be for the baby. 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. The rarest scenario is that the baby is severely ill and choices will need to be made. Ending a pregnancy for fetal abnormality - The 18-20 week antenatal Others said they were shocked because all the early diagnostic tests (e.g. The sonographer told me to take the notes, and the scan photos with me so they could review them also. 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. And she sort of got up and walked out of the room and called someone in. 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. Unfortunately I was not met with a compassionate sonographer. We use some essential cookies to make this website work. In order for the sonographer to get good images of your baby, the scan is carried out in a dimly lit room. It was over. As though I went power mad for a week, killing my innocent unborn child, and now I am tainted for ever. The baby kicked, blissfully unaware of what I had done. 12/12/2012 22:41. I get terribly irritated by my close friends and family. It felt as if we had gone power crazy. 18-20 week scans provide clinicians with more information than earlier scans because by18 weeks a healthy baby should be larger and better developed. Then I picked myself up. 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'. It can be such a shock so do whatever you need to feel better. He told me that they may want to do blood tests, but that 'he didn't see the point'. Has anyone been told the sex incorrectly at their 20 week scan? The consultant at the time wasn't really that interested in that imagery. The consultant showed us the letter with our result on and, yes, there were the words "Down's syndrome". So had to come back in a week's time for a scan, which again is quite a common thing I found out.