Foetal brain abnormalities.

[Mrscollinsx]

Hi everyone, first time posting.

I’m 21 weeks pregnant today, and after our 20wk scan, they found something wasn’t right with baby’s brain.

We were sent to UCLH for further testing, and they found he has an asymmetrical cerebellum, and it’s also smaller than it should be.

I’ve been searching the internet (I know I shouldn’t,) but all I can find is scientific reports. I would like to hear from someone who has experienced the same, or similar.

We are back for MRI next week which should help with finding out what’s going on.

Hi OP,

Sorry to hear you're going through a worrying time. I've recently been in a similar position.

At our 20 week scan they found our baby's head circumference were measuring quite small (152mm - 2nd percentile), as well as a small cerebellum (17mm). They sent us to the FMU at Princess Anne in Southampton (at 20+5days), they did a thorough more detailed scan. They said baby had a small head (165mm - 3rd percentile), small cerebellum (19mm - banana shaped) and lemon shaped head, plus a small protruding sac very low on her spinal cord. So they diagnosed her with Spina Bifida Myelomeningocele and borderline Ventriculomegaly (mildly enlarged brain ventricles 9-11mm) and Arnold Chiari Malformation. I am now 23+5 weeks and she seems to be doing well, kicking away every day.

OP, did they check your baby's spine or brain ventricles? Or was that all fine?

Thank you for replying, so sorry you are too.

Congratulations on your little girl too, we were going to have a surprise, but found out as we weren’t sure what was going to happen.

Other than problems with cerebellum & vermis, all other parts of the brain were ‘normal.’ They did say his ventricles looked prominent, but fell within normal measurements.

Our baby boy is kicking away too, which gives us hope. Almost like he does it to reassure us.

The sonographer couldn't find a cerebellum on a scan few days ago and referred us to a fetal medicine unit.
Baby was moving quite a lot and tilting his head so she said she isn't overly worried as the baby looks perfect otherwise and the bladder was full but needs someone more experienced to have a look.

However as soon as we left the room the atmosphere changed we got a private room to wait for blood test for cmv rubella and toxo, and a midwife had came to talk to us about our feelings.

I am not sure if they are suspecting SB or something else.
Our app is in 2 days from now and the closer it gets the more I panic.
What are the options. Noone would tell us what would happen at the appointment apart from me expecting another scan. They mentioned amnio as well but we already went through NIPT when they suspected chromosomal issues which came back low risk.

Any advice please?

My son was diagnosed with a cleft lip at the 20 week scan and then polyhydramnios later on. One of the Drs was really negative about it and recommended all sorts of tests. We chose not to have anything invasive like amnio but I had bloods to check for toxoplasmosis and a few other things. Ds was then born with ventriculomegaly and some other brain abnormalities. He has moderate learning difficulties but he is doing very well. He can nearly write his name and he went kayaking last week.