Renal pelvic dilation at 35 weeks growth scan

[Djingdad]

Hello everyone

im writing this from the viewpoint of a worried soon to be first time dad. Me and my partner were recently sent for a growth scan after her bump went to the high end of the centre line on the chart but then came back down to be near enough 2 weeks later when she was measured again.

during the scan all the measurements were fine, all hanging around 50 percentile or just above or just below for the AC, HC and femur (which was 72 percentile).

everything seemed great until she mentioned one of the babies kidneys looked dilated. She assured us it’s common and it’s nothing to be too concerned with but we have been referred to fetal medicine which sounds concerning in itself.

she showed us the scans and said she was getting 3 measurements of the dilated kidney. One was around 8mm, then a 9mm and then a 10.5mm. She said she would air on the side of caution and go with the 10.5mm just to be safe.

I’ve read on the nhs site that it’s not a big deal and is easily dealt with but I’ve also read about links to Down syndrome and even autism and to be honest I’m scaring myself silly.

does anyone have any experience dealing with this?

thanks for your time

This happened to us - 37 week growth scan. At 39 weeks it was both kidneys. They have never found the cause and our son has never had any problems. He’s 7 and thriving. I saw the link to DS at the time too which scared me too. They will put baby on prophylactic antibiotics if it’s still there towards the end of the pregnancy and then do some scans on baby to see if there is an explanation for the dilation.

We experienced the same, initially they thought it was both kidneys but it was one. When DS was born we stayed in hospital for a week as some of his blood tests showed some high levels. He also had an ultrasound. He did end up admitted to hospital twice with UTIs and he had reflux into his kidney from his bladder. He took antibiotics every night.

When he was 5 months old he had an operation called a sting, where a resin is injected into the ureter to keep it dilated, he was also circumcised as it’s recommended to prevent infection. He’s now 13 months and has never had an infection since or any other issues, 3 months after his op they rescanned him and then stopped his antibiotics.

There’s never been any concerns about his development and of anything he’s slightly advanced, compared to his older brother.