Measuring small and high resistance through cord?

[Redrosebelle]

Hi all. Been for a scan today due to slow fundal height increase and was told the baby is measuring small and I have high resistance through the cord. I’ve been on the ctg monitor and I’m waiting to see a doc. Does anyone know what the plan might be or what I should ask for. I don’t have w lot of faith in the hospital but don’t know anything about this! I’m 34+6 x

They will probably want to monitor growth closely and will likely be keen to induce as soon as you are 37wks. The risk of high resistance is that blood flow in the cord can reverse, starving the baby of nutrients and oxygen. I would guess they will want more growth scans and regular CTGs until the birth, and if anything looks iffy they may want baby to come before 37wks.

Fwiw - this happened to me and I was induced as a priority as soon as I hit 37 weeks after blood flow to the brain seemed to have dropped. Induction was straightforward, baby was born perfectly healthy and bigger than they thought and has been fine ever since.

Also. I was fairly devastated at the prospect of early induction as I'd hated being in hospital for my first and hoped for a homebirth. Now baby is here safely it is honestly so completely unimportant. The thing is that with the risk factors they've found you are now at significantly higher risk of stillbirth and nobody wants that to happen, so from a medical POV as soon as baby is full term they ideally want them out.

Thank you for replying! I am still waiting for a doctor. How often will they monitor growth? What if they don’t pick up the cord flow reversing.. is that a sudden thing or would I have some warning signs? I’m a nurse and still birth is at the front of my mind. I really need to ask the dr I know but I don’t always trust what they say as I’ve said for weeks something wasn’t quite right!! I don’t mind being induced.. I wonder if they will leave me to 37 weeks? The cord resistance was off the chart so I’m not sure how bad things are yet!

Still waiting!!

If the resistance is that high then yes I imagine they may be wanting you delivered sooner. But only the consultant can tell you obvs. I would certainly buckle in for monitoring at least every few days if you go a few more weeks and delivery well before 40 weeks.

Dr has come back and said the resistance isn’t THAT high and they won’t rescan me for 2 weeks. They haven’t offered ctg monitoring and hey said the cord flow could go back to normal??

After locking up a fuss we’ve booked another ctg for Monday, I’m seeing a consultant Wednesday and they’re trying to get me a scan for Friday just to check the cord flow. They said they can’t do actual growth scans any more often than fortnightly but I said I’d like the cord checked regardless. Does this sound a sensible plan? I feel if they don’t listen to me properly in the next few days I’m going to come
In every day and demand monitoring. I’ll also have a much lower threshold for ringing re movement!!!

Bumping again for any one else’s experiences I’d love to hear from you please x

Anyone around tonight experienced this x

Hi OP, what do your notes say about the high resistance?

It's just that my baby's growth has slowed right down and I swear the Doppler is saying high resistance.
They didn't mention it but it's there in black and white in my notes.
I have to go back to be scanned but not for another 4 weeks

I had high pi (pressure in cord I believe), combined with reduced growth and reduced fetal movements with a fair few unsatisfactory ctgs (I was in hospital for a week at 32 weeks and then went in for daily monitoring). DD was induced (ending in emergency c section) at 34 weeks 🙈 the consultants main issue was if baby wasn’t moving then we had no baseline or warning if anything was to be going wrong, at 34 weeks she was safer out than in.

It has a graph with cord pi measuring 1.44 which is off the normal scale and his weight is low on the graph too.

The dr came and said they didn’t need to see me for 2 weeks which seems really risky seeing as most still births are caused by cord or placenta problems?! It says diagnosis of placental deficiency on my uss report.

I kicked up a fuss and they’ve agreed to give me a ctg Monday, a dr appt Wednesday (I may ask for another ctg then?) and an uss Friday to check just cord and placenta flow. If it’s worse I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.

They won’t give me another growth scan for 2 weeks but at least I’m being monitored?

Mine says L.Middle Cerebral Artery PI 2.50

So if they are worried about yours at 1.4 then why aren't they worried about mine?

The umbilical artery PI is 0.94

Honestly just keep fighting for what you think is right. I'm not going to pretend I even understand what is good/bad in terms of PI as for us it came as a whirlwind along with reduced movements and non reassuring ctgs. By the time the PI issue was picked up we were pretty much down in delivery being induced. Just make sure you follow your gut instinct. If there are any changes in movement get yourself seen ASAP

I’ve been up since 745 and only had two very small kicks. I have had cold water and breakfast and a shower and nothing! Going to give it till 945 and get myself dressed then ring the hospital. I’m not sure if I’m panicking over nothing now but the cord issue has really scared me. Do you guys think that’s the right thing to do?

I think my umbilical artery pi is 1.4 and if yours is 0.9 that explains why they aren’t worried. I’m not sure about the other reading although there’s a reading on mine that says 0.74 too x

@Redrosebelle just wanted to say that if you don't feel right then definitely get seen. You are not panicking for no reason. You are not being unreasonable. This is your baby and you are their advocate. Good luck.

Yes go and get checked

At the hospital now - I’ll keep the thread updated. Thanks for all messages of reassurance x

You may find Kicks Count website useful
Good luck today

Thank you
I went in for monitoring and was on the monitor for ages till they asked me to lie on my left side and baby went bananas and kicked like crazy! The midwife was lovely and said the ctg looked text book but if I am worried and end up going every single day then so be it. She also talked me through my scan again and said that even though the blood flow isn’t great it’s still doing it’s job and if there’s any change in movement that’s the first sign that things aren’t right. But I will notice a decrease over a few days and the placenta and cord don’t suddenly just stop, there should be warning signs before.