Low amniotic fluid levels at 9 wks- would like to hear your stories.

[jocesar]

Hi
Am 9+1 and have been scanned today because I'd been passing some brown discharge and had a mmc 5 months ago.

Baby has a heart beat but very low amniotic fluid. I know this puts a much greater risk of MC again. Has anyone any experience of this and would love to hear some happy endings?

Anyone? I can't be the only one.

Low amniotic fluid at 9 weeks is an unusual finding and is probably a temporary blip.

(It's a different scenario to low amniotic fluid after 20 weeks which can be due to a number of more worrying situations.)

It's also an ambiguous term. Low or none or minimal or reduced? All those terms could be used to describe the same situation and depend on the sonographers interpretation and experience. They may represent a casual observation rather than a clinical concern. Were you told by the staff it causes risk of MC or is this something you have read on the net?

I didn't wish you post to go unanswered and hesitate to reassure blindly ....although your description makes me think it is an observation rather than a clinical worry.
It is however understandably causing you huge angst. I'm sorry you have this concern.

There is a school of thought that says 'reassurance' scans for ladies post MMC can cause more anxiety unless the scan is 100% perfect. How many of us are 100% perfect!! It's a big expectation. The staff are terrified of reassuring and then being hit by angry complaint if something happens so they report every little thing....which causes more anxiety.

I had low aminiotic fluid as judged at my 12 week scan with my DS1 - it wasn't noted before that (I had several scans due to bleeding/spotting before that point...altho' probably was there I would imagine). They don't measure it as such at that early stage - I think it was just as judged from their experience in sonography (had 2 consultants at different hospitals confirm it looked low/reduced from what they would normally expect).

Mine was likely caused by a 2 vessel umbilical cord (also called a single umbilical artery) - which is relatively common (affecting 1 in 100 pg). Anyway....after very stressful anxious pg....out popped my wee man, completely all OK and healthy! I've never found many people with low fluid early on - its common late on but not so common early on.

If you're worried I'd ring them and see if you can get someone to say what that means - your GP might be able to do that or know someone who you could speak to. Always better to get the people in the know to answer whether its anything noteworthy or just as the pp has mentioned it was just a casual observation.