Fetal cardiac scans

[Whyriskit]

Hoping someone can help. We are going to start ttc DC3 soon. DS2 has a congenital heart defect which was only picked up postnatally when he nearly died.
Has anyone had another child after one with a CHD and were you offered a fetal cardiac scan?

I haven't had a child with a CHD but I had one (VSD, now closed). I had a fetal cardiac scan at a specialist hospital with DS2 and DS3. With DS1 I had an extra scan done by the registrar at the local hospital. I had to ask (nag) for this every time though, it wasn't offered automatically. All 3 scans were fine and none of my boys have a CHD.

I lost a child with a heart condition, then went on to have my daughter (now 15) who didn't have any checks. However, went on to have another child who has a heart condition, so DD was routinely checked.

Times change. Although I can't answer it, hopefully it will rest your mind a bit x

After I had my first child who had a chd that was picked up in utero - my gp was desperate to send me for a fetal cardiac scan. However with both of my subsequent children they very carefully checked in utero around the heart. FWiw even my first child - despite the antenatal diagnosis they still scanned her within a week or so of birth so that they could confirm the diagnosis. My other children also had an increased risk due to their father having a chd that was not detected until he was in his 40's. Despite close scanning at 20 weeks the CHD that dh has is more visible around 3 - 4yo and so we had to wait until then for a specific confirmation that they both fine..

Given your history - I would imagine most medical staff would flag that and check it more closely

My DS had lots of complications both before and after birth. He had a fetal heart scan which missed his very major 5heart defect which wasn't diagnosed til he was 5 days old. He was in NICU, very low satscall but like I say lots of other complications.

His defect was missed because his heart is turned on its axis, not sitting in the normal position.

Sorry thats prob not what you want to hear. Tests are not always foolproof. However the hapoy side to this story is that we were told DS would die before birth, then he'd die within a month if Feingold born and here we are, getting ready to celebrate his 7th birthday very soon