One Artery in Umbilical Cord

[CherryBlossom100]

Hi everyone.
Just looking for advice and experiences.
20 week scan with twin boys has shown that one has only one artery in his umbilical cord rather than two. I've been referred for additional tests but just wondering if anyone had experienced the same?
The twin nurse said that the twins might need to come early and that he might have a low birth weight but that's all I know so far. Many thanks.

I don’t have any experience, but didn’t want to read and run. I hope someone with more experience comes along soon

I’m pretty sure my DC2 had this. She did come early (36+6) but a very normal birth weight. And her older sister was much earlier so it may have had nothing to do with the single umbilical artery.

As you can tell from my imprecise memory it wasn’t a big deal for us or her. I don’t know if yours being twins makes a difference however.

My youngest had this but they only found out when I gave birth and they were checking the placenta and cord after delivery.
We stayed in an extra day so they could check kidney function but all was and continues to be well. One of the risks is low birth weight but she weighed the best out of all my children who were around the 5 lb mark and she was 7!
I'm not sure if its different for a twin pregnancy though.

Thank you everyone. Its reassuring to hear of healthy babies where it hasn't been an issue.

Not a twin, but my daughter had this.

The maternity unit was inclined to be a little more cautious — I think we had an extra scan or two, and she was induced at term. For twins, that might be earlier, I suspect.

She was over 8lb at birth and is now in her first year at university.

My youngest had this.
They gave me extra scans and I had to have daily injections of blood thinners between 25 and 36 weeks. He was induced at 37 weeks as his movement had slowed, but he was a healthy weight of 5lb 13oz and has had no health problems since.

It is fairly common and usually doesn't cause much of a problem, but they'll monitor you more closely and if it seems that baby is not growing as fast as they'd like they may induce you early.

Nothing to panic about though, OP xx