Amniotic Band

[Mumarooba]

Hello, I’m a newbie here, but I’m needing some advice. I had my dating scan at 13 weeks yesterday and was told at the end of the scan that she had seen an amniotic band, but baby was obviously moving freely. She didn’t say anything else but looking at the picture I could see thin white line stretching to each side of the uterus I.e it looked attached at both sides, and it didn’t seem to be anywhere near baby. I then saw the consultant (under consultant for previous IUGR) who said the same thing. As it was said in such a casual manner I didn’t ask any more and they booked to see me at 20 weeks for my anomaly scan. I then came home and googled and all I can find is “amniotic band syndrome” and nothing about amniotic bands on their own, or how likely they are to cause amniotic band syndrome. I was also wondering if anyone knows whether the NHS classify all bands seen as amniotic bands, as I’m aware true amniotic bands are rare and it seems there are other non sinister causes of bands that have similar appearances on ultrasound.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Hi,
I have a dd who was born without a hand.
One theory is that amniotic banding obstructs the limb from growing. It is only a theory, try not to google, there's a lot of rubbish out there claiming all sorts of things. Last time I googled it, which tbf was quite a long time ago, there was definitely more people claiming to be doctors and spouting rubbish about it than otherwise. Probably on about a 10:1 basis at least.
Amniotic bands exist-there just is no evidence that they cause defects. I think they're pretty common, but only around 60 children a year are born with limb amputations.

As it happens our limb centre doesn't believe amniotic banding causes it. They subscribe to the (also only a theory) that it's a blood clot in the placenta or foetus which obstructs the blood flow to the effected limb.

But I don't think it can be as simple as that. Statistics show that it is more likely to be:
(all on approximately twice as likely)
a girl than a boy
upper limb than lower limb
left side rather than right side.

If it was a amniotic band, or a blood clot it should be equally likely on all of those, which leave me wondering what the reason is.

I would assume (hopefully) that having seen an amniotic band they may have checked all the limbs? Missing limbs have certainly been picked up at the 13 week scan. Dd's was picked up on the 20 week scan, which is probably the most common time to spot it.
When you go back for the 20 week scan, mention that they said there was an amniotic band (should be in the notes anyway) and ask for them to check (if they can see them) limbs down to fingers/toes.
If there is an issue, I'd be surprised, but feel free to PM me if there is and I can talk to you.

We had an amniotic band spotted at 13 weeks, but no problems as a result. We thought we could see it on the 20 week scan but it proportionally much smaller than the baby then, that all it could trap was a finger.
The scan lady said she spots a few but never seen a problem from them...

Sorry for typos- one handed as breastfeeding wriggling toddler to sleep!

Thanks for all the replies. That’s very interesting about the blood clot theory. They checked limbs and all present and correct. I suppose it’ll just be a long old wait until the 20 week scan

Hi, I went for my 15 week private scan and they noticed an amniotic band but I was told it wasn’t touching baby and didn’t seem to be affecting any limbs. It was still present on my 20 week scan last week, but again the Sonographer didn’t seem concerned and said all limbs seemed to be moving and wasn’t affecting baby at this point. I was just wondering what happened with your amniotic band and whether it affected your baby or not in the end? I’m just really worrying and no one seems to be telling me much :(