Confused about 2nd attempt at nuchal screen

[CBo79]

Hi everyone

I am new here, just joined! Been looking at a lot of the topics and threads though, so much useful advice and support here.

I’m 14 weeks pregnant with my first baby, and aged 35. Last week I had my dating scan and was booked in for a nuchal translucency test too. I was already worried because of the huge emphasis they put on age, but hopeful of a good outcome for the baby.

I was told off because I didn’t have a full bladder (nobody told me I needed one but I suspected I might, as I hate having a full bladder at any time my plan was to drink loads of water in the waiting room, which was foiled when we were seen straight away, oops!) which apparently made it more difficult to see baby. Nevertheless we were very relieved to see that it was there and alive! Heart was beating fine and all looked good.

The joy quickly faded into anxiety, however, when the sonographer couldn’t get the baby into the position for the nuchal test. I was told to wriggle my hips and even had to get up and jump about (gently) to see if I could budge it! It did move around but apparently wasn’t the right position. The sonographer was pretty brusque and didn’t really seem to invite questions, so I lay there with my husband beside me, both of us wondering why the hell it was taking so long.

In the end, she said she couldn’t get the right measurement and that we would have to come back. Being a worried mum to be, I of course asked several times if everything was OK. She assured me it was, and I’m pretty sure she said it all looked fine, but she needed to be accurate with measurements. We’d also been in there for a quite a while, so I’m assuming clinic time might have played a part in ending the appointment.

So, we went away with our photos of the baby, feeling a bit let down by the nuchal not happening, but otherwise pleased to have a seemingly healthy baby. My next scan for the nuchal was booked info for December 30th (my scan was on December 9th) which is when I will be 16 weeks along. We thought nothing of it.

Since then, of course I have turned to my old friend Dr Google, and the worrying has cranked up. I didn’t realise that the cut off for the nuchal is 13 weeks and 6 days/14 weeks according to where you read it. But I will be going at 16 weeks, when apparently there is no fluid left to scan!! So I’m super confused. Did she take the fluid measurements and just wants to get the rest at this appointment? Or did she get confused with the dates?? (unlikely I know). Or was something seriously wrong and she just wasn’t telling me?

I know that I could call the clinic but I’ve had past experiences of trying to get details of my situation and it has been so stressful that I just want to leave it. Rationally, I know that if things weren’t fine, she would have said, and also that she will know about the cut-off date and there will be a reason why she can still do the nuchal. It’s just adding stress to a pregnancy event that was already flipping stressful enough to start with!

Sorry for such a long first post! If anyone has experienced anything similar or has any advice to put my mind at rest, I’d really appreciate it :) I had no idea how worrying this pregnancy thing is! Thank you all xxx

There must be some misunderstanding. The cut off for the nuchal fold scan is 13+6. At 16 weeks they can do quad blood test, which also estimates risks for trisomies, but is less accurate.
Age risk at 35 is not that high yet, although I cannot remember the figure now. So no measurement doesn't mean a bad result at all, although it is frustrating.
However, I think it is the best to call the clinic to ask what will they do at 16 weeks to put your mind at rest.

I am not surprised you are disappointed. Out of four pregnancies and various doctors scanning me, I have never had this. I would be pretty fed up because you haven't had what you are entitled to, although it is great news that all looked well otherwise, so take heart from that.
If you are willing to pay, you could go to somewhere like the fetal medicine centre and have a harmony test, which checks for the main trisomies (not same as the NT scan but a more accurate result for the trisomies at least). they will offer you a package with an early anomaly scan I think.
I think that they will still be able to check the nuchal fold at 16 weeks (although not the nuchal translucency which needs to be done before 14w and is the basis of making a risk calculation as you say). The nuchal fold measurement will still be helpful in ruling out other concerns, although not as useful as the NT scan. And you can still do the quad test .