2 vessel cord, fed up......

[fifitot]

34 weeks. At 18 wk scan they found I only had 2 vessels in the umbilical cord instead of 3. Apparently this happens in about 1 in 100 pregnancies. I have read about it extensively now. Depending on what you read it can be an indicator of abnormalities or it can mean nothing at all. In fact NICE guidance for sonographers indicates that they should not report it and that it is a 'normal variant' - apparently more recent research has shown it not to be signficant.

Anyway it hasn't stopped my hospital scanning me every few weeks and it's getting me down. Growth scans it seems. I am an 'older' mother but that in itself shouldn't be enough for all the extra scans and every time I go I see a different doc. One shrugged at the cord issue and said it wasn't a problem, another took it a bit more seriously, another was inbetween. None of them could say if it made me a high risk pregnancy or not and what I read tends to make me feel I'm not.

I am just fed up of scans and hosptial appts every few weeks. I just want to enjoy the rest of the pregnancy - of course will still go for the scans if need be though know I don't have to if don't want to. My feeling is that they are not clear if the cord issue is significant or not, despite current guidance and are scanning me just to keep an eye on me and that the constant change in docs isn't helping as one just copies what the previous one does!

Sorry am just having a moan.

Just bumping in case anyone else has experience of this. Every time I go for a scan there is another issue and just sick of it. I have the cord issue, then there was a echogenic foci in the stomach which thankfully has gone now and today they said the head was measuring ahead - though 'nothing to worry about'.

Plus am sick of hanging around hospital waiting rooms and having to give my DOB especially as I am so ancient in maternal terms.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I think they're bound to find little things that aren't an issue if they scan so often - it's like the explanation for why some cancer rates are higher in the US (they scan for them a lot more and so diagnose people who might never get sick from it).

Doctors always get dubious if the guidance changes, because it might change back again! So they're probably just being super careful so they don't get rapped for missing anything.

Thanks for posting. I guess you're right.

At least you're getting to see the baby every few weeks, and it sounds like they are doing fine

I expect they're just mentioning things of slight interest like head measurements in passing as it is their job to measure this stuff. As japhrimel says, the more you look at something the more likely you are to find 'issues' but it doesn't really mean anything. Only one or two more scans to go anyway at a guess?

Thanks bexxaa.