20 week scan brightness in bowel

[Missmibaby]

Can anyone advise?
I went for my 20 scan this morning and they found brightness in the baby's bowel. I have been referred to a consultant on Tuesday for further tests and scans. Apparently it could mean the baby has cystic fibrosis, downs syndrome or I have been infected by toxoplasmosis. I told myself I wasn't going to worry about it as there is not much I can do. But having had 2 previous miscarriages before this pregnancy I can feel the worry starting. I'm really just wantng to know if anyone has had similar experience. Just want to talk to someone really.

My mate was told all of that on her 20 week scan, but then they turned to her and said that it could also be some fluid there....plain and simple, just fluid there which can be seen on scan.
She like you became frantic, had to wait for further scans etc and low and behold, baby born at 40 weeks healthy with no problems at all.
All that worry over nothing.
Hope that this is true for you too.

Hi Missmibaby,
This happened to me, same thing. I was told they didn't really know what it meant (this was 5 years ago) but that it wasn't "normal". Had scans throughout pregnancy and then had perfect healthy dd. She was about a year old before I finally believed there was nothing wrong with her.
I think as scanning technology advances they pick up more and more, but understandably don't always know what it means (hope that makes sense).
Pointless to tell you not to worry, of course you will, but Good Luck for Tuesday...you'll be on my mind.

Thanks for your replies. I find all the waiting hard - don't understand why they can't just do the test/scan there and then.

It's all might, might and might. Nothing I can do about it between now and Tuesday anyway.

I had just started to relax about this pregnancy and now this.

I had exactly this with my first. Was refered to the Fetal Medicine Unit at UCH (fortunately I was already booked in at UCH) where I had several very detailed scans. I had a whole raft of blood tests (including for cf and toxo) and a lot of discussions with the specialists. During the scans they literally counted every bone in ds's hands and feet, as the numbers of bones can be other soft markers, measured blood-flow through heart, umbilical cord and other organs - as this can also indicate soft markers, and took millions of measurements of other parts of ds. I had also had a nuchal scan and the triple test. All results were within normal limits.

The end result was that my risk of having an affected baby was substantially increased, from something like 1 in 4000 to 1 in 1500 IIRC. That may be more than twice as likely, but you've got to look at that from a different perspective as well - I still had 1499 chance likelihood of having an unaffected baby. I was offered the opportunity to have an amnio, but chose not to as the chance of having a miscarriage as a result of the amnio was vastly higher than the chance of having an affected baby.

I was scanned at about 3-weekly intervals, in order to keep an eye on ds's growth, and to keep an eye on his bowel. Although it was for a scarey reason, it was so reassuring to seem him (didn't know he was a him) and I began to enjoy all the scans!

There is another possibility, which perhaps has not been mentioned to you, and that is that you might have had a little bleed from the placenta into the amniotic sack and the baby has swallowed the blood. Because the foetus doesn't poo until birth, the stuff doesn't get excreted. This is what they said probably happened to me, as they also spotted a little bit of scarring on the placenta.

I hadn't had any bleeding during the pg. Ds was born at term, 8lb10oz, Apgar 9 then 10. So, very healthy!

The specialists and other staff were incredibly calm, patient and forthright. They took as much time as I needed, there was never any 'scaremongering' or unnecessary fuss.

I hope this reassure you a bit, and if there's anything else I can tell you, please do ask.

swallowed blood from a bleed in early pregnancy.

my thread \link{http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=49&threadid=108585#2342370\here.} typing one handed because completely healthy dd wriggling!

I'll keep you posted. The rest of the scan was fine. So hopefully will all be nothing.

Missibaby, I too had this with my second ds. Was told all the things that you were but my consultant did say it could be blood that the baby had swallowed. My scan showed I did have a placental bleed (unbeknown to me). My ds also had another soft marker in the brain so I was talked into having an amnio to rule out downs syndrome. The next scan showed the brightness had disappeared as had the brain cyst. By this time, I had the full amnio results which were thankfully fine. I think the fact that they've only found 1 soft marker at your scan is not indicative of anything sinister - it is only when they find 2 or more that there might potentially be a problem but even this is highly unlikely. Easy for me to say, but please try not to worry - I'm sure everything will be fine. Hope you get good news on Tuesday.

Missmi, have posted my experience on the pregnancy after miscarriage thread.

Thanks for all your messages.

I couldn't think about anything else on Thursday, but after a sleep I felt a bit better. There nothing I can do about it so I've been trying not to worry about it. I don't know if any of you can relate to this, but my major worry is losing this baby. Of course I want a healthy baby, with no problems, bt after my 2 mc I just wan that baby. I tried to tell the midwives and sonographers, but they are focussed on something else. So I feel relieved every time I feel the baby move and panicked everytime I feel a twinge!

Anyway have an appt with midwife tomorrow so hopefully will hear heartbeat. She's very good so I'll tell her my concerns. Tuesday is d-day will let you know how I get on.

I had this brightness show up in my daughters scan at eighteen weeks as well, it is called echogenic gut.I was scanned a little earlier as my afp blood test was raised.My chance of having a child with a chromosomal disorder went up to 1/25,so we went for an amniocentesis.the results turned out absolutely fine.I was scanned every few weeks,because babies with this problem can sometimes be low birthweight.This brightness went as suddenly as it came around 28 weeks and my daughter was 9lbs 3oz.I am currently 14.2 weeks pregnant and when I mentioned my last babies problems to my midwife she told me that echogenic gut is not considered a high marker for downs or cystic fibrosis any more.

It can be a soft marker for Edwards syndrome though (if accompanied by another soft marker like choroid plexus cysts), so people with these symptoms still get recommended to have further investigation sometimes (I had amnio and it was fine).

Thanks Arabica.

I went to the consultant for another scan and a blood test for cystic fibrosis.

I have decided that I can't get worried about it, because I'm not terminating this pregnancy and so what will be will be whether I worry or not. I do have a hope in the back of my mind and maybe I will start worrying depending on what the blood test result is.

I also spoke to a friend who went to the same hospital on the same day and got same sonographers. She though they were rubbish too. Thanks for your supportive messages and I hope everything wokrs out ok for you.