Fetal Reduction

[General78]

Hi All,

I am a very concerned husband simply gathering information for my wife.

I am interested in experience not opinion. No decision has yet been made and I believe the decision should be made by myself and my wife once we have all the information required.

Long story short, we have been trying for 4 years to have a second child.

My wife has finally fallen pregnant.

She's just over 6 weeks. Due to a lot of bleeding and very bad sickness we saw our fertility specialist who advised us to have an early scan.

Wel...we were not expecting what they told us. There is 3 of them. 2 we were prepared for, 3 we were not.

We are obviously very concerned about the health implications for both the babies and my wife (she is 42) but also the impact having 3 babies in hospital for 2 months will have on our 5 year old son.

Has anyone reading this got any experience in the UK of fetal reduction? Can you share your experience with us?

Has anyone got any experience as a support friend/person for someone who has been through this process and can you share this with us?

Can anyone give me any information or guidance on where I can find out more information from?

We are waiting to see our consultant, is this something we should discuss with them? Is it frowned upon?

We just want to be fully informed so we can make the best decision. Any help you can offer would be greatly received.

You've probably seen this but in case you haven't a lot of experiences here:

community.babycenter.com/post/a7239455/anyone_undergone_fetal_reduction_surgery_when_pregnant_with_triplets (American though)

Here's a previous MN thread about reduction from twins to singleton

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/antenatal_tests_choices/1188830-Fetal-reduction-twins-to-singleton/AllOnOnePage (that might not be that helpful, but added in case there are some nuggets there)

www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(04)00467-3/abstract article with figures - this suggest karyotyping before reduction and notes that reduction to a singleton (but not sure whether it means from 3 or from 2?) comes with fewer complications than reduction to 2. Also this might be worth reading in more detail "The outcome of multiple pregnancies that were reduced to a single fetus or twins was similar to that of nonreduced pregnancies" - worth checking what they mean by outcome

Although Cochrane seems to be saying there aren't any good studies in this area to aid in decision making www2.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab003932.html

This looks quite useful - especially the bit about the timing for reduction (11-14 weeks)

www.theafa.org/blog/the-dilemma-of-multifetal-reduction/

Sorry if you've found all these yourself - good luck.

There are some (at least one) poster who has triplets by the way - might be worth posting in the general part of the board to try and track her/them down.

Hi, I had a reduction in January from twins to a singleton at 13.5 weeks, due to Down's syndrome in one of my twins. I'll PM you.