Has anyone else ever had this? White area in 39 week ultrasound, please help

[Ddejong]

Hi all,

I had an ultrasound yesterday at 39+3. Everything up to this point has been unproblematic, but the sonographer kept looking at baby’s stomach. I saw a white area and asked what it was, to which she replied she was wondering the same. It was the galbladder which is normally a black shape but now was white. Not a few spots or thin line but the entire shape was white instead of black. She said she’d never seen it before and asked a colleague to take a look and they couldn’t tell what it was either. Could be nothing but they wanted someone at the hospital to take a look anyway. They are now discussing whether it’s useful for me to visit the hospital because first availability is after this weekend (after my due date). I don’t want to worry about it to much, but waiting until after the weekend is a long time..

Anyone seen this before or had this to? Is it something to worry about?

Thank you!

I have never experienced this but from googling it sounds like maybe a case of fetal gallstones which I didn't realise was possible.
I think you should make sure the Consultant ultimately responsible for your delivery knows about this, so your baby can be checked and monitored immediately after delivery.
Also from googling it seems it usually sorts itself out but occasionally the gall bladder is removed.

www.isuog.org/clinical-resources/patient-information-series/patient-information-pregnancy-conditions/abdomen/fetal-cholelithasis.html#:~:text=Fetal%20gallstones%20are%20typically%20diagnosed,reason%2C%20this%20can%20be%20diagnosed.

Thanks for your reply and taking the time to google it. I did the same, but on the images where there are gallstones you see white circles within the gall bladder and what we saw (wish I’d taken a photo) was the entire shape being white (not opaque but no shapes within the white either) as if it was lit up.

The midwife of hospital will call us this afternoon to let us know if we can stop by or not, but if not we will probably return to our midwife tomorrow to see if it’s still visible. We had a scan 2 weeks ago and there was nothing out of the ordinary so for all we know it was just hard to see right yesterday.. here’s hoping!