Bilateral Notching? anyone experienced this

[Roxanne123]

Im now 23 weeks pregnant and went for a scan yesterday which showed Bilateral Notching in both my left and right arteries going to the placenta.
This slows blood flow down and can cause problems and im worried sick :(, going to see a consultant next week and being put on asprin to hopefully improve this.
Little man is growing at normal speed and is very active,
Just wondering if anyone had experienced this?
xx

I'm not too sure what it is, but if your worried talk to your doctor and midwife just so you can learn more, I would try not to worry, but I am a worry guts and we all worry our socks off for these babies, all the right people know and now you are seeing a consultant as well, everyone is around to make sure you and baby are ok and you will get extra monitoring so if anything were to go slightly wrong it would be picked up straight away :) just be prepared for outcomes like premmy births or something, pack hospital bags and chuck them somewhere for now?
I find being prepared and learning about the condition, bilateral notching, would help me feel better.
I am sure you will be ok, once you get past 23/24weeks babies are viable and the percentage chance of them surviving outside the womb goes up and up and up.
Oh and if your lil'man is growing ok and as long as he is active I wouldn't worry, I too have problems in my pregnancy, but my lil'man is very active even when I feel crappy so I think at least one of us is ok :)
Take care, good luck, I'm sure you will be fine, try not to worry xx

Hi Roxanne, as you may have found out if you haven't managed to resist googling bilateral notching in the blood flow to the placenta can be linked to pre-eclampsia. It is great that they have picked this up so early and are referring you to a consultant- aspirin can certainly help (under medical supervision) if pre-eclampsia is possible. I had pre-eclampsia with all 3 of my pregnancies, resulting in early deliveries (1st at 30 weeks, 2nd at 36 weeks and 3rd at 37 weeks)- with the latter two I was on low-dose aspirin from 12 weeks until the week before anticipated delivery, and I completely believe it was the aspirin that helped keep the baby and me well so that we got close to full term.

You will hopefully be offered regular check-ups, especially of your blood pressure and protein in urine (they can also give you dip sticks to test it daily at home, which I found very reassuring) and also more regular doppler scans to check the blood flow and monitor your little one's growth carefully (problems with blood flow and/or pre-eclampsia can cause intra-uterine growth retardation ie. slow the baby's growth, which they'll need to watch carefully). Although nothing can really be done to stop pre-eclampsia it can be controlled to a degree through medication (aspirin and if you get high blood pressure they can medicate this) and close monitoring, and if need be bed rest.
Not all notching leads to problems by any means, but as it's been found to coincide with pre-eclampsia later in pregnancy they will & should take it seriously just in case. For what it's worth even though I got very ill with DC1 due to pre-eclampsia (which was detected late for me, and was a rapid severe-onset type called HELLP syndrome), and DC1 had to be delivered so early, we are both fine now (DS is now a very happy,active six year old!). I've found the US pre-eclampsia foundation website really good for more info on PE and specific forum.

Really hope all is well though, and you have a long, happy & healthy pregnancy.

Hi - I am currently 25 weeks pregnant and at our 20 week scan they discovered notching on one side, so we have a growth scan at 28 weeks and see a consultant at 29 weeks. I was on aspirin already, for other reasons so no medication prescribed. So far not been told of any risks although looking things up didn't help me. I will have growth scans at 28, 34 and 36/40 weeks.

It is good your baby is measuring the correct size for number of weeks. Hope consultant can reassure you and let you know what they will do next.

Hi Roxanne, I had notching on one side when pregnant with DS. I was put on low dose aspirin and had growth scans every 3 weeks, with blood pressure and urine tests at each scan too.

The consultant told us that this is associated with an increased risk of the baby not growing properly, but they kept an eye on that with the regular growth scans. We were told that the notching in itself wouldn't increase the risk of early labour, but if DS had stopped growing, then the doctors may have acted to get him out.

DS continued to grow at a normal rate throughout, despite notching.

Hopefully your baby will also continue to grow well.