This is my second pregnancy. My first baby was fine and I did not have an increased risk with him. I had my NT scan yesterday and the sonographer said that my nuchal fold was 4mm and it should be under 3mm. Has anyone had any similar experiences and what were the outcomes?
My DS had a higher than normal nuchal fold measurement and combined with the other factors we had a 1 in 284 risk of downs. Our hospital considered anything less than 1 in 300 to be high risk, however we didn't. I refused to have an amnio and opted to see the genetic counsellor at our 18 week scan to determine if there were any other indicators.
Nothing was found at our 18 week scan, and we now have a beautiful healthy 10 week old.
Have you been given any other information?
Did you have bloods taken prior to the scan? They should be able to give you a risk ratio based on the nuchal measurement combined with the blood tests. To tell you that it is 4 when it should be 3 is not really helpful, they should be giving you more information. Or, if you have an OB, call them to discuss.
They havent combined the results yet Buliej, will get combined result Tuesday.
Appletree what was your nuchal fold if you don't mind me asking. I am also 33 so guessing that is against us too.
From memory it was around 4.13mm? Its a long wait till Tuesday you poor thing! It is such a confusing time, you have to ask yourselves some serious questions about what you would do, which we found very confronting.
Our results were high purely because of the measurement. The bloods, and all the other factors that weight the result were all fine. We decided that because it was only based on the one measurement (which the accuracy of is dependent on the skill of the ultrasound technician) we were not willing to take the risk of an amnio and losing the baby. Though i was confident in my decision, it was still an incredibly difficult and emotional time.
Good luck!
Thanks Appletree yes it certainly is difficult and emotional. i cry just thinking about it which is probably really silly considering I do not know yet. Although in the scheme of things it is not a long wait it is way too long in this situation. I am guessing that because of the measurement it will be a high result anyway which in itself scares me because then where to. I want this baby so badly but then if it had serious health issues I have to think of the implications for bubs. It is very difficult as you expect your first scan to be a happy and joyous moment seeing that precious baby and now all I can think of is that result.:
How old are you if you don't mind me asking as I think my age is a factor too.
Hi HaydensMummy - I understand how scared you are as my DH and I went through this last year. My babies Nuchal fold was 3.3 and I was 25 at the time. This was picked up at 9 weeks in my Ob's rooms - it wasn't even the nuchal scan at 12 weeks. They never did the bloods as said it was very obvious something was wrong. I had this confirmed at a specialist ultrasound place with another doctor. We had CVS done at 11.5 weeks as I just couldn't stand "not knowing" and could not wait till 16 weeks for an amnio as they thought it was trisomy 13 or 18. It was all incredibly scary and we saw a geneticist and genetic counsellor. We were told that if the fluid resolved by our 20 week morphology scan and if the CVS came back clear of chromosonal abnormalities there was a great chance our baby would be fine. By 14 weeks the fluid had started to resolve and by 19 weeks the fluid had completely resolved. The CVS was clear (got fast results back in 2 days after CVS and the rest of results clear bout 2 weeks after). We still were monitored VERY closely with fortnightly scans and cardiac scans as sometimes it can mean heart abnormalities but Our daughter was born happy and heathy last September.
I know how terrified you must be right now. I found my whole pregnancy emotionally draining and stressful but my obstetrician was incredibly supportive and helped by seeing me whenever I was worried or scared for a quick scan.
Since we went through this with my DD last year I have heard so many similar stories of bubs who had high NF but they were born fine, even another girl in my mothers group and her NF was 6.6!!!! I wish you all the best and know that you are not alone and BB will support you on this journey. I hope you get some more info very soon so you can decide what you will do next eg - wait and see, cvs, amnio, extra scans etc.
Huge hugs xox
Thank you so much. it is good to hear stories where the outcome has been fine. Can I please ask about the CVS in case. If our risk is high we would need to get onto that straight away. They say you can risk miscarriage how long after do you have to be careful of that. Do you need extra time off work etc, what is the procedure, risks etc.:
Hi there Haydens Mummy, I am 35 and recently had my NT scan as well, just for my age they gave me a 1 in 270 but then after the bloods and other measurment results it jumped right up to 1 in 5393, This is my third time round not that makes a difference, so I dont go by just that first result wait until you get all the info before you start worrying yourself, I know thats easier said than done. Good luck I hope this helped a bit, try not to worry your self too much. :)
I hope Ocean Princess sees this and responds - she had this situation with her first baby and ended up with a cvs from memory. Her DD is a perfectly normal 16m old now.
Hi, I was told the risk of miscarriage from a CVS was about 1% and less for an amnio. I was incredibly scared of this as I had just had a miscarriage a few months prior so was very scared to go through that again. I won't sugar coat it as I wanted honest information at the time as well. It was very painful - a big metal pole/needle inserted into my stomach and down into the uterus to get the chorionic villi sampling and then pulled back and forth till the got enough fluid. From memory you can cvs testing from 11.5 weeks till bout 14 weeks and an amnio is after 16. I think I was told if I was going to miscarry from it it would happen within 2 weeks. I had 3 days off work I think. You cramp quite badly after the procedure and are told to rest. It is a HUGE decision to make whether you have further invasive testing that only you and your partner can decide. For us we ummed and arred for weeks (as we found out at 9 weeks so had to wait) but in the end I knew I couldn't last a whole pregnancy mental health wise without knowing what we were up against!