Amniotic band spotted at 12 week scan

[RainbowsFriend]

I've stupidly googled and am now really worried.

The sonographer said it looked quite substantial, and even I could see it was attached at both sides of the sac as it was pulling the sides in. It is currently at the foot end of the baby, but apparently out of reach.

She then sent me out to do my urine sample, and when I came back (with empty bladder) tried again to find it to check it had a blood supply, but couldn't find it.

So, I know they can't do anything, and I don't want to carry on googling and scaring myself, but does anyone know of any further information re risk statistics I can read? They just said they would make sure to count the number of limbs present at the 20 week scan!

[Barbie1]

Hello rainbow, I have been pointed in your direction to reassure you that I can end well.

I had a band in my last pregnancy, scared the crap out of me!

I google, and cried and googled some more.

Ds is now sleeping soundly absolutely perfect

There are two types of band.

One is fairly common and often goes unrecognised, the other can be more serious as it can attach itself to the baby and cause a few nasty things to happen. However this one is very, very rare and most pregnancies don't survive to the 12 weeks.

It is highly likely you will have another scan in a few weeks to see what kind of band you have. Some times the sac can fold upon itself and cause what looks like a band, once the baby grows the sac will expand and naturally unstick the fold if that makes sense

I had scans every few weeks, I was told that if the baby became entangled that I could have an operation to cut the band, thankfully it never came to that and my ds seemed to just move out of the way.

If you have any questions feel free to ask x

[RainbowsFriend]

Oh thank you so much!

The sonographer told me there was nothing they could do other than count the number of limbs present at the 20 week scan - that there was no treatment - I double checked that with her.

So it seems I might need to be a bit pushy then to get it rechecked?

Where was the band on your scan? On mine it looked as thick as the baby's arm (12 weeks) so pretty substantial, and straight across the sac a little way from the feet. It seemed to pull the sac in like this... )---( does that make sense?

[Barbie1]

It makes perfect sense. Ours looked the same. In fact the sac looked a bit like a figure of 8 at one point

Personally of you can afford it I would get a private scan at 16 weeks, our band had moved into a must safer position in four weeks and saved me from worrying until 20 weeks. I had 14 scans but it was private treatment in Dubai so more scans in the norm there anyway.

The band at one point looked to be across his head, they were worried he would lose an ear, by the next scan it had gotten smaller and was by his feet which we saw him kicking!

[RainbowsFriend]

Thank you :)

I'm glad that yours turned out ok as well. :)

I'll talk to my midwife if I can get hold of her, and if I can't get more scans via the NHS I'll talk to DP about getting a private one - he has health insurance with his work, so that might work.

Thanks again for sharing that - feel much better about it and have a plan of action!

[Barbie1]

Please feel free to pm anytime, I know how worried I was

[RainbowsFriend]

[LoganMummy]

Please don't panic.

I just wanted to say my friend had this. She had extra scans and at 38 weeks the band was no longer visable. She had a natural birth with a perfectly healthy baby girl four weeks ago.

Ask your midwife/consultant as many questions as you need to.

[RainbowsFriend]

Thanks for the advice - quick update - I rang my midwife and she said that there is nothing they can do at this stage, but she's going to refer me to see a senior sonographer at my 20 week scan.

She did manage to reassure me though that it is very rare they cause problems, and actually when babies are born with "amniotic band syndrome" most often the bands were too small to be seen on ultrasound.

[Barbie1]

Thats reassuring

You will probably find by your 20 week scan the band has all but disappeared.

Please do keep updating, thinking of you