Thick Nuchul Fold At 20 Week Scan

[teaone]

Hi, I'm looking for advice / anybody with a similar experience / any kind of guidance..

I'm currently 22 weeks pregnant - all was well with screening, tests and ultrasounds and I was having a seemingly straight forward pregnancy until I went for my 20 week scan.

I knew something wasn't right as the atmosphere changed and 3 separate people had to scan me. I was eventually told that everything with baby was ok apart from the nuchal fold was measuring 8mm (6mm being the normal maximum). I was taken to speak with a consultant who explained what this could mean and sent me away with lots to read and to consider an amniocentesis.

I'm so lost and confused, I really don't know what to do. Does anybody have any experience of this?

Thanks for reading x

Just wanted to say you are not alone - I recently had some bad news at the 20
week scan (about the baby’s kidneys) - am in the middle of investigations with fetal medicine at the moment.

The ARC (Antenatal Results and Choices) charity are brilliant and have a helpline you can call for support (even if you just need to cry down the phone to someone as I was!). I’ve also been calling my midwife team’s 24 hour phone number for support.

If you can reach out to close family or friends that can also be so helpful. It was too much keeping it between just me and my partner, but my family have been so supportive and made us feel not alone.

Thinking of you and wishing for the best possible outcome X

Thank you so much for replying.

I am also in the middle of the same, after each appointment I expect things to be a little more clear or to have some kind of answer but that isn't the case, after each appointment so far I've been left no clearer.

Was anything else found or was it just babies kidneys?

Friends and family have been great but also unsure of how to help which is really understandable. I don't know anyone who's been in even a slightly similar situation :-(

My midwife is almost impossible to contact and I'm not due to see her for another few weeks but I will definitely look into contacting the ARC thank you so much!

Thank you so much, I hope the same for us both x

It was the same for me - in the 20 week scan and then a consultant scan at my local hospital they weren’t sure what was causing the kidney swelling which made it feel so much more worrying and scary. I was then referred to another hospital who amazingly found the cause - an obstruction. Sorry I know it’s not exactly the same issue.

Everything else with the baby looks good. I was low risk at 12 weeks. I’ve been offered and have decided to get amniocentesis next week to check it’s not related to something else.

I know how you feel - I don’t know anyone who’s had a problem at scans (although not many of my friends have had children so to be fair it’s a v small sample.) It doesn’t help that films, tv, social media etc portray scans as happy and exciting occasions! So it can feel really lonely getting news like this.

Sending loads of support and hope you can get the help and answers you need X

So the first Google result is
Most babies with thick nuchal folds are healthy, especially when this is the only ultrasound finding. In a small number of pregnancies a thick nuchal fold is found in a baby with Down syndrome. Your baby is very unlikely to have Down syndrome if you have already had normal prenatal screening results.

I can only empathise with the worry you have, as haven't been in that situation myself. However, always have had it in the back of my mind. The way I viewed it was, if something showed up on a scan and baby had a birth defect, had a long term health condition that was manageable, or had the possibility for a chromosome abnormality such as downs syndrome, would I be okay with termination? Which I wasn't okay with, so I decided before scans that if I had to do more invasive testing to find out something that couldn't be changed I wouldn't do it as I'd be keeping baby regardless.

That being said, all of it is on a scale and sometimes the risk for extra testing is worth the knowledge. You just have to make that call for yourself.

Hope that sort of perspective is helpful, if not, this was a long post to say good luck, and I hope you manage to get all the support you need for you and babe with all the people around you x