2 vessel umbilical cord detected at 20 week scan

[Whatevertheweather]

Does anyone have any experience of this? Been for my scan today and everything was 'normal' except the cord only has 1 artery and 1 vein instead of 2 arteries.

Am booked to see consultant next Friday to discuss further. Sonographer just said it can be associated with iugr and other defects. I've never heard of it before and am loathe to scare the bejesus out of myself with dr google! If anyone has experience of this I'd be really grateful to hear. Thank you

DD (now a strapping 9 year old) had this. On its own, as far as I can see, it means bugger all, except I suppose that it means you don't have the backup of a second artery if the first one goes wonky.

Yes, it can crop up when a child has other abnormalities, but according to the senior sonographer I saw, around 1% of 'normal' children have this anyway (possibly more -- historically it only tended to be when a child had other abnormalities that they looked closely at the cord, she said). I know this doesn't guarantee anything, but if they can get a good, detailed look at the other major vessels and everything seems fine, then probably everything IS fine.

DD was scanned in extra detail at 20 weeks to see if they could pick up anything else odd, and again at around 28 weeks, iirc, to check her development. She did have a shortage of amniotic fluid (can't remember if this was just deemed to be a coincidence) but was born at term weighing just over 8lb.

The waiting around is horrible though. Much sympathy.

A colleague had this problem nearly eight years ago and they were told it could be possible Edward's Syndrome (DON'T PANIC!) She had a test and had to endure two weeks of heartache not knowing but the test came back fine. Apparently, they should never have been told that as it's not unusual to only see 1 of each in the cord. At least they were told she was having a girl. Little 'Lily' is now aged seven and very healthy.

This happened to my son, now a perfectly healthy almost 3 year old.

When they told me at the 20 week scan I got really worried but then they explained they would check more carefully for other possible problems and that if there were none there was no reason to worry. They may offer you ore scans in order to ensure the baby is growing well, that was a bonus!

When discussing my birth plan, the midwife explained that they would need to monitor me during labour, to be sure the baby doesn't get distressed which may happen due to the one artery once he was big. I was strapped to the machines, had to be I induced ( irrelevant to the single umbilical artery) but he came out unassisted, just under three kilos and perfectly healthy.

Just to e sure all was well, they scanned his kidneys a few weeks later, again all was good.

Today, he is a tall and lovely little boy with no issues whatsoever. Apparently they used to find out about it once the baby was out and the likelihood of it indicating other problem is tiny. As far as I remember it's the most common placental abnormality.

Hope all goes well, update us when you hear and good luck with your pregnancy!

It's quite common (1-1.5% of normal babies) - can be normal variant, can be associated with other abnormalities. Risk of being small for dates and in particular, mild kidney abnormalities (but not so much that screening postnatally is recommended).

www.medscape.com/viewarticle/530359 is helpful and not too scary.

My sister in law's sister had this with her son. Now 5, he is absolutely fine. I think (from personal experience) that it can be a sign of something array but only if presented along with other soft markers. I wouldn't worry. (well, I probably would, but that's cos I'm a crazy :o

Thank you all so much for your replies - feeling much more reassured

Onesuzymac - thank you for the link it does explain things clearly. Am naturally a bit of a worrier but trying focus in the positives; all measurements are currently bang on dates, no other soft markers, all organs checked and appear to be fine.

Thank you again - it was pretty unsettling as had no problems with dd's scans so came as a bit of a shock x