ventriculomegaly

[XMelissaWx]

Hello,

looking for any stories similar to mine please and any advice

all scans until now have been fine, had a growth scan at 32 weeks and they spotted ventriculomegaly 12mm, will now be referred to fetal medicine. So so worried now

I had the same thing picked up at a routine 32 week growth scan with my 2nd pregnancy, so I completely understand the worry you must be feeling. For me, everything measured normally at the fetal medicine scan where they have better equipment and are more skilled at taking these types of measurements when the baby is harder to scan in the 3rd trimester.
I obviously can't promise that everything will be fine but I wanted to share some things that helped me:

1. The threshold for referral is 10mm - as my consultant said, there has to be a cut off somewhere. My measurement as 13mm and that was classed as 'mild' if I remember correctly.

1. On its own, an enlarged vertical does not usually indicate anything more sinister. For the scary genetic conditions there are other concerning markers that would have been picked up on the scan.

1. A lot of people born with an enlarged ventricle have no symptoms and need no treatment. There is a risk that it causes macrocephaly which will need to be managed, but it is perfectly treatable and there is no evidence to suggest that it affects development any more than a baby without this condition. It helped me feel less anxious to remember that everything was normal at the 20 week scan, and it was only because I had an unrelated scan that it was even identified. I would have been blissfully unaware otherwise!

1. I tried my best not to Google when I found out, as people only tend to post the horror stories online. My husband found a good fact sheet published by Great Ormand Street which is very neutral and I found it quite reassuring. https://share.google/sFg0pWODwBNva6Rwz

I won't lie, the wait for the fetal medical scan is awful! They were so lovely and reassuring when I was there though, and I felt really well looked after. They suspect the reason why I measured high in the growth scan was due to the position of the baby who had her head in my pelvis. Measuring babies past 20 weeks is challenging at the best of times, let alone something that is just mm long. I really hope everything works out positively for you, and this will all be a distant memory soon.

Try not to worry about it until you’re seen by foetal medicine. My local hospital kept measuring one of my baby’s ventricles as big on growth scans and saying she had ventriculomegaly. They referred us to foetal medicine three times who, after the third referral, got a bit shirty with the local hospital because they were taking the measurements incorrectly and measuring diagonally down the ventricle instead of the width. It was a horribly stressful time, but foetal medicine were brilliant. They’re the experts so please try not to worry until you’ve seen them. Baby’s now a very bright toddler. From everything the foetal medicine consultant said, it seems that even if it were ventriculomegly, isolated mild cases can be a variation of the norm.