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Hi Lovemy 3,
I understand how feel. I also admire you for not having an amnion.
Well, with the dramatic improvement of the ultrasound machines we pregnant women can no longer enjoy our pregnancies. They say ignorance is bliss and I agree. On the down side, ultrasound cannot detect all genetic anomalies in fetuses especially if the marker is borderline normal or very subtle. For example, some babies with down syndrome have an absent nasal bone, some have an underdeveloped nasal bone and some have a normal nasal bone.That means that if you have a "normal ultrasound" it does not mean that your baby does not have any defects. Also when one or two soft markers are seen it does mean your baby has a defect. The difference between both cases is in the numbers. We can only tell you what your odds are and that is what drives us crazy.
In your case, having your level II ultrasound done by a perinatologist or a registered ultrasound tech who is working with a perinatologist may be better since it may give you the peace of mind that you deserve. Again bear in mind that the majority of babies are born normal. Secondly, an echogenic focus seen in the fetal is considered a controversial and non specific finding by a lot of doctors and they refuse to stress their patients out with that piece info. For example, I was recently admitted in the ER and the ER doctor ordered an ultrasound. I mentioned to the sonographer that I am also a sonographer and she asked me if I knew that my babies had some calcifications in their hearts and I said yes. She took alot of pictures of their hearts for the radiologists on duty. When the ER doctor came to me with the final report the was no mention of echogenic foci seen. He said I had a normal ultrasound. The radiologist had decided not to report it and I am sure there are a lot of pregnant women who are enjoying their pregnancies now because they were spared that piece of troublesome information.
I am sure your baby is fine. I know it is easy for me to say but try not to worry . The odds are in definately in your favor

Hello,
I had my ultrasound today and even before i sat down the tech sai dthe spot will still be there, she said it is a mussle and on some it is more dense or bright then on others. So when she checked of it was there, she said evevryhting was normal and try not to worry, i asked her how long has she been doing this for and she said 17 years. the tech said she see's at least one of these a day. I asked her the level of my first U/S and it was a level 3. I'm 3o weeks and the baby is 3 pounds. she also said that it is's a controversal subject. I'm still worried but i'm trying to trust the words of the medical drs but i'm just scared they could be wrong. Anyway besides my negative side it was encouraging. she was moving around which was nice to see. Hang in there everyone.

Hi Downunder, I'm very glad your U/S went well and you got to see you little one move around. As I remember your posts, I believe your blood test came back negative. So the only marker you have is the spot. I thought the spot became a risk for a genetic disorder only if it was combined with a positive blood test and/or other U/S markers. There is no such thing as a false negative on the blood test. Lots of healthy kids have the heart spots. Based on what I've read, you are in a really good situation and I hope everything does turn out great for you.

hello IPO,
Thank you for your encouragement. Yes my screen test came back negative for DS. And this is the only marker, i guess after reading stories thoughts of what happen to her it just makes me a little nervous. The tech i had was very good though and tried to reassure me but i guess i'm having one of those anxious days. Thank you for caring!

Hi Everyone,
So i just gor off the phone with my midwife, she had said that the spot is there still which i knew and the babys weight was 42% which is a little smaller then the average. Does worry me! She said the Femur was 26mm in Aug and was at 48% now now is 55mm but the percentile is 32% which also worries me. Does anyone have any advice or info on this? I'M feeling sick to my stomach about it now. The midwife did say she is growing and she is not concerned but i have to say it really does not help me. She also said they only worry when it gets downs to 10%. I was just hoping of better percentages.

sorry i should proof read before i hit submit

Hi Downunder. they are also measuing my babies femours. So far hers are longer than usual. I go on Dec 4th and will ask your question. Thats good your blood was good. My blood was bad but heart was good. we need to combine our results and be perfect! LOL> I will ask that question to my fetal med specialist on Tues. Stay positive. hugs.

Thank you, i'm in tears because iam so confused. I dont understand why the u/s place would not of mention this as well. all they wrote in report is EIF still there. nothing about the measurements i had to ask the midwife what they were for the femur and humor which is measuring 49mm. Isn't this another sign to downs. so either i'm missing the big picture or they just forgot to write that in the report.. i think i'm loosing it today. this is when i wonder if i shoi=uld of had the ammnio because at least i can prepare either way. thanks for listening

I wonder the same thing about the amnio as well. I am now 29 weeks and past that point. When i start to think about that, I just remind myself that we wern't going to abort, so its just an added risk of miscarriage and just keep raying and waiting. Can you still have an amnio? Just really think about what you would do with the info, what if it was negative or positive? For me, a little bit of me was afraid of the results if it was postive. I think for me I will handle it better if baby is already here when I find out. For me, it would be more upsetting to carry knowing and not have her in my arms to bond with. but thats just me. Do whats right for you. In the meantime, hang tough. I know its sooooo hard. When is your due date? xox

I also read somewhere that 10% is the cutoff. Unless I'm understanding this wrong, 42% means that 58 babies out of 100 will be bigger than yours, BUT 42 out of 100 will be smaller. So your little girl is almost in the middle - which the average. I don't mean to pry, but are you average height? Because if you and the father are average, then your baby is just taking after you. Again, I'm not an expert, but I will also ask at my next appt. Hang in there.

thankyou both for your support. I know i would never abort but i think that i'm such a worrier that it might have saved so much stress, its such a hard decision and no you are not getting to personal
I'm 30 weeks and 4 days and average height 5.7 i just got off the phone with my husband who called midwife to get her version and said the same exact thing, that she is pretty much average. 57% of babies will be bigger I guess all the numbers the midwife gave me(the femur, humur etc) the U/S place calculates and comes up with that percentage 42% being all together so i think i'm reading into it to much. It's just so hard to not worry. I'm still wondering why the femur is measuring smaller but is not considered to them as being another marker. thank you for your support listening reasoning with me, take care

Downunder (HUGS) I know nothing about femur length... but still, with just the EIF and your very negative serum, your chances of all being ok are VERY good. Sometimes that isn't enough... I know. And just so you know, it's never too late to have an amnio -- even just for peace of mind. You sound SO stressed out and maybe the amnio would be a right decision for you just to KNOW one way or the other - you don't want to put yourself into pre-term labor due to uncontrollable stress! Of course at this point, there is no risk of "miscarriage" due to an amnio, the risk would be preterm-labor (which is SMALL). Not that I am encouraging you to have one, because I really am sure things are FINE with your baby, but just weigh your options... and your peace of mind, and maybe an amnio would be something you'd want to think about. It was definitely the right decision for me. I needed to know one way or the other... I would definitely not have wanted the "shock" at birth. I would have wanted to be prepared. Thinking of you!

Good morning! Is there not a time frame for amnios? I thought there was, but could be wrong. I guess I'm more paranoid of the risk of amnios as my neighbour had one done and m/c a perfectly healthy baby. But if you are not handling the stress well, peace of mind is important. For myself, I just couldn't have handled m/c my baby more when I weighed the options. I am a huge worrier as well, but for me I knew I'd never get over losing my baby due to amnio if I did, so I had to make the choice. If I wasn't aborting the only reason is for preparedness and peace of mind. I have done a ton of reading about DS, contacted early intervention, bu t am praying, we won't need verything I have set in place. But like Peridot said its all a matter of what works for you. I hope you are feeeling better today! xox

From what I heard and read, you can get the amnio anytime. They often do them in the third trimester to check if the lungs are mature. And yes, it would be pre-term labor instead of miscarriage at this point. For what it's worth, I had my amnio when I was 26 weeks, they told me if I could wait about 4 weeks I should, so the baby would bake a bit longer **if** I was that worried about pre-term labor, but I was too stressed out to wait. The chances of something going wrong are so slim. One good thing about knowing now, besides a huge relief in most cases, is if there was something wrong, you can make arrangements to give birth where there are specialists etc. Also, (from researching) the femur and humerus lengths would have to be < 5 or at greatest >10th percentile to be a marker.

Good Morning, thank you for your thoughts and info, I feel a little better today still stressed but not as bad. I found a chart on web and read the length of femur and humur, if i read it right it seems she is only off by a little bit to what it should be. So that did make me feel slightly better. Thats was my next question what percentile or measurements makes the femur and humur another marker, i've tried finding it but cant so thank you for the percentage. Amnio is such a hard decison but i wondered if you could do it later because my friend had one done at 35 weeks to test the lungs, it's just crazy because my mid wife wont even bring it up like its not an option. thank you guys for checking in and researching you have really made me feel a lot better. I know you all know how it feels and completly understands the emothions we go through. thank you!

Hi there, Thanks for all the info. I didn't know about later amnios. Very interesting. You sound like you are feeeling better today Down Under. Try not to worry about the femour stuff, as U/S measurements are not accurate always anyhow. they could be absolutely perfect! hang in there. All these emotions are really hard. I had tears this a.m while drinking my tea. I am scared too, but its going to be ok for both of us. Even IF and BIG IF since odds are in both favours, we would be ok, we would be good moms. Its amazing what you can cope with when you have to step up to the plate. Its the fear of the unknown. DS isn't the end of the world, childhood cancers, autism, many many many things could actually be worse. Chances are we won't have to even deal with DS, but we're gonna be ok. I am praying for you and your baby too! hang on, not much longer.