20w scan - possible heart issue

[Desperateforababa]

Hi all

Would be grateful for any experiences...

At our 20w scan, the baby was lying in a weird position and despite coming back for a second scan, the midwife couldn't get a good enough view of the heart. There was a cross in ventricles that she was supposed to see but couldn't. She has referred us to GOSH for a fetal cardiac scan. We couldn't tell if this was because she couldn't get a good view or if she was genuinely concerned. The notes just refer to getting fetal medicines second opinion but don't specify what the issue could be.

Has anyone had one of these referrals? We have tried to keep calm but I've obviously googled like mad and can't tell how common this is or how likely it means our baby has a heart issue.

Thank you so much.

Hi, we had a referral to fetal medicine for a measurement on baby's brain at 19w. Fetal medicine were super quick in referral which helped and it ended up that his position in the initial scan was the issue. We then had a review at 28 weeks where his position was suboptimal again, where we thought there was something wrong, and had to do a fetal MRI to check all was OK.

I know how stressful it is to be in limbo with it all, hopefully it's just a positioning issue and you get the results you need.

I think they have to refer if they aren't absolutely 100% sure, to be completely safe! So it may just be a recheck, and the Fetal medicine specialists are very good at scanning with their higher tech available.

Thank you so much - your response really means a lot. Fingers crossed it's the same thing.

Hello, I’m sure the midwife is just being cautious and at 20 weeks the heart is so tiny, I think it’s completely possible that this is just an issue with baby’s position. I do think that if she was really concerned that something was wrong, she would have told you? Hopefully the fetal medicine team will be able to get a clearer image and reassure you.
in terms of heart conditions, there’s around 1% chance of having a baby with a heart defect. I think it’s 1 in 125 babies so even less than 1% really!
my little girl was born with something called transposition of the great arteries and this was picked up as her arteries did not ‘cross’ instead they were parallel. You mentioned ventricles though so I think that’s something different? Anyway we were completely distraught after the diagnosis and she did have to have a major surgery as a newborn but she is now 2 and is absolutely thriving. Hopefully you get your fetal medicine appt soon and all is okay. Please update us x

After what felt like a very long weekend, thankfully all is fine. Our daughter is apparently particularly awkward to scan. I asked how common it was for people to be referred and all be fine and she said it happens a lot because the normal sonographers only get a short amount of time whereas the specialists can take 45 mins to look at one organ. So if they're in any doubt, they get it checked out by specialists. Feeling extremely grateful.