Reassuring ultrasound scans...not!

[mears]

I came across this site the other night and this article means a lot of sense to me. Instead of reassuring women, scans are becoming more worrying - any thoughts?
scanning

Everyone seems to be in bed - that is where i will go too.

i am a good example of this mears.... although we took it on the chin - dd had her heart defect - complete AVSD picked up in utero and the accompanying information about it being a hard marker for Down's syndrome along with it. we declined an amnio - personal reasons... however the original 20 week scan had the sonographer telling us that dd had a hypoplastic left heart.... much different diagnosis and outcome to the AVSD. lots of worry - in fact we almost laughed when the fetal cardiologist told us about the AVSD - it was a relief after days of searching for information and reconciling ourselves to that outcome. dd has had surgery - heart is fine!

pregnant with no2 due november - I know that I am at a higher risk as I already have a child with down's syndrome. Had my 20 week scan - they detected an echocardiogenic focii (?) and we then had a discussion about what the meant - both the sonographer and the genetic counsellor said that with the advancements in technology these very soft markers are routinely being picked up and yet tend to result in 'normal' (for want of a better word) children being born. They also went on to say that this is a quite common thing to find and yet can in fact be gone by birth or not and has no effect on the heart what so ever.... In fact as no other physical markers for down's syndrome were found both women tended to dismiss this finding and said it would be very unlikely if this babe was born with down's syndrome. Yet told us it was their duty to tell us what had been found and what our choices were.. now five years ago or more - how many of these would have been picked up and how many woman would have had the extra worry for nought...

Now I know what it is to deal with down's syndrome and so we are not worried either way - we figure hey - we don't have to worry about a heart defect or open heart surgery and all that comes with that.... but I can't imagine what it would do to a woman who thinks all is fine and then this small spot is picked up and then having to decide the next step.... which could all be irrelevant if the baby is without Down's syndrome.

It is awful facing the unkown - those few days we waited for an appointment at Kings for the cardiac scan to tell us exactly what was wrong were horrible - all sorts of thoughts go through your head... and then you do some research and you are even more worried than when you started. Then to see the outcome after she was born and wonder how bad things are etc. I also went through the stage of sort of blaming myself - was it something I had done whilst early pregnant that could have caused this heart defect...

However - I am glad I had all my scans and that we were prepared for dd's heart defect and what it meant rather than the surprise of this being discovered at birth or later... however with no2 it does some that whilst scans can be brilliant at putting people's minds at ease - they can sometimes raise more questions and worries than they solve....

sorry for the ramble.

Agree with the article mears. We've moved hospitals this time. In my last pregnancy I had by now received 4 scans (I'm 17 weeks). this time none. Will get my 19 week scan in 2 weeks. And I've enjoyed not having any scans. I already know I don't want invasive testing- and I have seen friends go through nightmares after things like talipes have been revealed on scans (not because of talipes but because of being told that can be an indicator for trisomy 13/18 whatever). I've seen friends come under a lot of pressure for more invasive testing even when they've insisted that they don't want further tests. I do think they are a necessary evil though- its got to be "good" to pick up fatal conditions antenatally.

eidsvold: I don't know the difference between a AVSD and a VSD (which I have a small one).

In fact a lot of people go throughout their life with out ever knowing they have one as it has virtually no effect on everyday life - I only found out following a scuba diving incident (which the VSD was not the cause).

Later this week I will have my scan and follow up appointment, and as I am aware of my VSD hopefully there will be reassurance that my baby does not have a large VSD, which AFAIK is easily fixed if an issue after birth.

This my first and looking forward to scan to see my baby, but as a woman I am allowed to change my mind about scans!