Scared - Going for CVS text tmrw :-(

[MissKiedis]

I had my first scan on wed and have since had 3 scans in the last 6 days which showed that baby no2 has 4.2mm of nuchal translucency fluid in the back of its neck. I'm 11wks pregnant and have opted to get the CVS test which is quite invasive, it involves a needle into tummy to take sample of the placenta to test for any chromosomal/genetic disorders.

I'm really scared about the results as I don't know what we will do. Mia was born 4 years ago and was perfect in every day - something we take for granted. There is no history of downs syndrome of anything in any of our families and ive only just turned 30 years old.

Have any of you been through this type of problem?? Is it something I have done that could have caused this build up of fluid.

4 weeks before I feel pregnant the doctor prescribed me citralopram for IBS which I stopped taking when I found out I was pregant - apparently citralopram is a anti-depressant SSRI which carries the tiny risk of giving an unborn baby congential heart defects - could this build up of fuild be that????
I also take co-codamol (codiene) every day for back pain.
I have also had a month long heavy cold that hasnt as yet shifted.

I'm guessing that if the CVS test comes back okay i'll be given the option of also going for the amniocentesis @ 15 weeks as it can test more abnormalies........

I sometimes wish this was 20 years ago then I would just have the baby without all these tests,scans and total WORRY.

Best wishes

Gillian

Gillian, there is another thread called antenatal tests, you will find lots of us there who have been in the same situation. I am also 30 and at our 12 week scan we had a nuchal of 4mm which meant an automatic referral for a cvs if we chose to have it done. They normally also take your bloods on the same day to give you a combined probability of a major chromosome issue which could be downs, Edwards or patau syndrome. For a 4mm nuchal at our age we were given an initial probability of 1 in 7. Bear in mind that your blood results could move this probability up or down, mine were awful and we ended up with a 1 in 4 probability which went down when the nuchal increased at the pre cvs scan to 5 mm. We got the full cvs results back clear last week..still can't say everything is ok as waiting for the 20 week scan now but if you look at some of the threads you will see lots of stories the same where the baby has been born healthy.

The cvs carries some risks of miscarriage which seems to be reduced depending on how experienced the person is carrying out the procedure. They normally run full chromosome tests but it doesn't pick up genetic issues. The amnio normally is a separate option to the cvs. It is done after 16 weeks and does include some additional tests but it is not normally done in addition to the cvs. The risks of miscarriage are believed to be lower than a cvs but a lot of people don't want to wait after the 12 week scan.

I also asked if there were any factors that could affect the nuchal and we were with some of the leading consultants in the field- they said not. We were also offered a full cardiac scan as the high nuchal can be indicative of heart problems and on going monitoring.

I forgot to say that it feels like your whole world has just fallen apart when you were probably just expecting to come out of your scan with a lovely picture of your new baby. It's awful and my heart goes out to you but just remember that it's not a diagnosis, it's just used as a possible indicator.

Hey hun I had the cvs test 3weeks ago and found it really scary but its not too bad but I would say make sure you have got no plans for at least 24hours. I had it for other reasons then you but I have everything crossed for you.
Good luck hun.

Xx