Pregnancy issues.
Posted by JP on 27 February, 2008
We started trying to conceive back in November of 2005 but our attempts were beset with problems. After four miscarriages, October 2006 finally brought a pregnancy that would last the course - though not without issues of its own.The major issue arose at the time of the twenty-week scan. The sonographer performed all of their usual examinations and seemed happy with what they found until they looked more closely at the umbilical cord. At this point the sonographer explained that he suspected a problem known as Single Umbilical Artery (SUA) and that he would need a colleague to take a look too. The second sonographer confirmed this suspicion almost immediately, but neither sonographer was able to offer anymore information on the condition. Eventually a doctor came to see us and explained that generally speaking SUA meant that one or more of the following would result:
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Foetal growth restriction;
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Renal (kidney) problems;
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Structural under-development or abnormalities;
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Increased risk of Down’s Syndrome or other chromosome related abnormality; or
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Increased likelihood of a female foetus.
In itself this news was upsetting enough, but the fact that there was no test that could determine which, if any, of these issues were likely to affect the child added to the sense of helplessness and bewilderment. The only issue which could be properly investigated was the risk of Down’s, though as this involved having an amniocentesis which increases the risk of miscarriage, we decided against further investigation.
This sense of waiting for something to happen continued through the 32 week scan (for sizing purposes) and an extra scan at 36 weeks (which discovered that there was insufficient amniotic fluid in the womb).
Eventually our due date arrived and with much trepidation we arrived at hospital, hoping for a positive outcome to all the months of worrying.
