To all you lovely, wonderful Mners... here's the news from emkana's amnio

[emkana]

First off: No Down's, Patau or Edward's Syndrome
(at least as far as the non-mosaic types are concerned, as I understood it)

Full results to be expected in two weeks time, and if those are clear too, then continuous monitoring of the ventricles in the brain which are too big (or at least borderline). Also a scan to look at the kidney area which is too big at 34 weeks.

So there's some sort of relief there, but it's by no means a completely carefree pregnancy. But we'll just have to wait and see. I feel hopeful and optimistic and positive.

You know what the best thing about today was? Dh came home at lunchtime, the appointment was at 3.15. While waiting at home we had a long and tearful talk in which I told dh that I couldn't terminate if it was Down's, and he understood and accepted, even though we had both said 24 hours before that we would have to have a termination in that case. But today I suddenly knew that I couldn't do it, not for Down's. So when we actually went to the appointment I had this strong feeling of peace, that everything was going to be okay no matter what the consultant would say.

I would just like to say again that I am intensely, enormously grateful to all of you who have replied on my various threads on the issue. It really has meant the world to me and has helped me enormously over the last few days, especially because I found it diffult or impossible to talk about it in RL.
So THANK YOU!!!!!

other thread not friend (Oops !)

I am so very pleased for you!

I'm so glad your news was positive. I hope everything goes well for you.x

Emkana, I've only just seen this thread. The ventricles in my daughter's brain were found (at 25 weeks) to be enlarged so we had similar worries about chromosomal defects. We didn't have an amnio but did have a foetal MRI which revealed that the ventricles were enlarged because she has agenesis of the corpus collosum. My pregnancy was AWFUL - I was terrified that she would have Edwards Syndrome, and that even if she didn't she would have other problems which I didn't think I could cope with.

I'm posting in case, once the amnio-results euphoria has calmed down, you start worrying about the ventricles in your baby's brain. The wonderful midwife who looked after me said that she has seen so many women whose pregnancies are blighted by these sorts of fears when measurements are outside the normal range, and the vast, vast majority of the babies are just fine.

Even if the ventricles do remain enlarged, it is highly likely that the baby will be unaffected. My daughter (now 6.5 months old) is checked by paeds, a neurologist, opthamologist, audiologist, the office cat, etc etc and she is the most normal baby you could ever meet even though she has an abnormal brain scan, and there is every likelihood that she will continue to develop normally.

So PLEASE try to enjoy the rest of your pregnancy, and feel free to CAT me if I can be of any help to you.

By the way, the best advice I was given was not to torture myself by researching it all on the internet!

mrsdarcy - thanks very much for your message, it's great to hear from somebody who's been through similar. Might contact you in the future, thanks for the offer. Will wait and see what the next scan brings - scheduled for the 22th of Feb.

And once again thanks to ALL OF YOU
for your lovely messages - much appreciated!

Emkana, I've not been on mn much in the last week, so apologies for posting late on this update thread. Just wanted to say great news x