Some things can be seen more clearly than others. We had the 20 week scan yesterday and got some devastating news. Still, the consultant thought things would be OK. By this point I had stopped bleeding, this caused problems. And they took me into another room. I had to stop myself from yanking out the needle. He felt doing more blood tests would only cause me more discomfort and false hope. He looked fine. Intellectually, I knew this was not the case. I had to wait for a doctor to explain the situation. Maybe. The consultant explained that this was just very bad luck and not, as far as they knew, genetic. Forcing my hand to my mouth to take the tablet was probably the hardest thing I have ever done. So it was, there was very, very little movement from the baby because I remembered first time round by that stage, you know, that the baby was quite big and it moved around a lot at a later scan. But he was not sure. I don't know how we got through the next couple of days. I was then told yet again bad news. There's nothing wrong, you know, we've had all the tests, everything's fine,' and being very upbeat about it all. But other than that everything was fine. So that was it. Very occasionally this second scan cannot be completed, for example because: In this case you will not be offered another screening scan but you will offered an all over physical examination for your baby after birth. And in this instance the scan was very evident that there was something very seriously wrong. She didn't want to see the baby. I endured 12 hours of medication and in the early hours February 7, 56 days after my first scan (at nearly 18 weeks), I miscarried our babies. So we left it there, and we didn't actually think that there was anything really to worry about after that scan. Can you remember that minute. We bought a two tests that evening (quite lucky as I messed the first one up!). Cardiac surgery can do some amazing things. Well, at the regional hospital it was a 3-D scan. Christmas came and went in a blur of emotion, it felt so wrong to be celebrating when we were in such turmoil. Some stories I hear are amazing! A few people recalled how frightened and alarmed they became when they sensed that the atmosphere in the scanning room changed in an instant from 'jokey' to serious when the baby's problems were detected. A company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales company number 3266897. Thanks girls, it's amazing how protected our babies are in there isn't it?! And I can just remember flashing a look at you as if to say, 'Have I made a mistake here somewhere? For instance a couple who knew their baby was 'on the small size' were told he was fine at the 18-20 week scan, but discovered at 32 weeks that he had microcephaly. You will then be asked to raise your top to your chest and lower your skirt or trousers to your hips. This scan takes place between 18 weeks and 20 weeks 6 days of pregnancy and is commonly called the 20-week scan. As I waited for the doctor back on the EPU unit. I just want to be normal again. Laura miscarried her twin babies in February. Let a mum know you're thinking of them send one of our personalised Mother's Day cards today, Home 18-20 week scans provide clinicians with more information than earlier scans because by18 weeks a healthy baby should be larger and better developed. For many other women, the 18-20 week scan was the point at which they discovered the baby had serious problems. And I thought that if I were faced with the possibility of having an amnio, hours of discussion would follow - I would spend days mulling it over. The midwife was on the verge of tears and I felt responsible. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk. You might be offered another test to find out for certain if your baby has one of the conditions. But they didn't. The scan was inconclusive, but the size of my little bump was measuring a lot smaller than it should have for 10 weeks. I then had to wait in the room along with many other patients for an hour so they could observe me. The rarest scenario is that the baby is severely ill and choices will need to be made. The "why me?" Just doing it. Not a good sign in a hospital consulting room. And there [sighs] was a very dark patch over one, where the eye socket was, and they didn't know it, in the Edward's babies sometimes the eyes don't develop properly, or it might have been bleeding, they weren't very sure. And I'm glad I did and she's glad she didn't. b>Bad news at 20 week scan. Severe chromosomal conditions such as Edwards' syndrome are now often picked up in the first trimester antenatal screening but itwill usually be more obviousat the 18- 20 week scan, though usually a firm diagnosis will not be made until one or two specialists have weighed up all available evidence about the baby - which usually means that another expert needs to scan the baby again, or until the woman has had an amniocentesis. And then, so I went to my next scan, which was the 20-week abnormality scan, and we took our first child with us, I think he was 17 months old at the time. And before they gave me any of the results she asked a colleague to come and told me she wanted to check something, with a colleague, and by then I was getting very concerned because I'd never had that happen before. My partner went out with him, wanting to see him. Has anyone been told the wrong sex at 20 week scan? He wanted to talk about it, but I didn't. If an abnormality is confirmed or suspected, referral is usually required, although some obvious major fetal abnormalities, such as anencephaly, may not require a second opinion (this should be decided by local guidelines). And it was just a bit of a shock because it's not really what you want to hear - you don't really expect that. Tommys is a registered charity in England and Wales (1060508) and Scotland (SC039280). Only this time, no cry came. But on, in the middle of March, 10th March it was, we had a 20 week scan. If necessary, you will be referred to a specialist, possibly in another hospital. This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/screening-tests-for-you-and-your-baby/11-physical-conditions-20-week-scan. Seated in the antenatal clinic with lots of expectant mothers with baby bumps. I was told this was common as my body and hormones still thought I was pregnant. I agreed to an internal scan as the sonographer said we could get a better picture of what was happening. Again, we weren't understood. Sometimes a post mortem was needed to confirm the 20-week diagnosis to see if the baby had inherited a genetic problem (such as Fowler syndrome - see 'Resources'). But now that's changed. Sometimes specialist scans such as 3D scans, or MRI scans, are used to examine the baby in greater detail. I was then told yet again bad news. We need to have your opinion'. Smiling at myself and picturing me and Sam becoming parents. Many parents were shocked by findings from the 20-week and later scans. We don't know, but it's not looking good'. Specialist scans had a powerful effect on some parents because they could see the baby more clearly and in some cases people recognised which parts of the baby's body were not working properly. I had to wait yet another sleepless night. Hugely upset that to think that the baby was so poorly. Some hospitals do offer earlier anomaly scans of the baby, but they will not show as much detail as scans performed between 18 and 20weeks. We left the hospital a couple of hours later. It will take only 2 minutes to fill in. So obviously quite relaxed. You have accepted additional cookies. And that, that was when things where it started going a bit wrong. Eventually, the doctor finished the scan and said that some of the baby's measurements were very small. And my husband, we never got to sit next to each other in the consulting room, my husband was across the room from me, and I was sat next to the consultant, and we were laughing and joking with him about, you know, the home delivery, and everything was going to be, 'Are you still on for the home delivery?' As I say, I'm not a very nice person at the moment. It wasn't measuring at all the right measurements for the age - there was a heart defect, the limbs were sort of distorted, the arms were, you know - you could see that the arms were very sort of contracted, the hands were contracted. But before he could speak, he, too, had broken down. Many described how sonographers and doctors were very restrained and didn't speak at all until they had analysed all the baby's details. If you choose not to have the scan you can still have all other parts of your routine antenatal care. I sat and waited to be called for my scan. And I knew there was no way out. The thing that I have a very strong memory of is this child's face in amazing detail. And how wrong could they be? Went back a week later for the scan and, you were with me for this one, weren't you? I was becoming numb to the whole process. We're still not at the end of our journey, but we're much further along. Emma was 20 weeks' pregnant when a routine scan revealed that the baby she was expecting had Down's syndrome and heart problems. By this time, we were tired. 10/03/2021 16:13, @Cormoransjacket The chances that anything bad will be discovered are v v small. Specialist scans are performed in specialist fetal units and if clinicians feel that there might be problems scanning will be done up to 32 weeks. I didn't really know what that was. I'm trying to understand because I haven't seen a 3-D scan, what it tells the parents? I couldn't really believe what they were saying. So I trusted him. We both thought we would like some good to come out of this horrible experience, so wanted to talk to somebody about the possibility of using the body for research purposes. Do you have any thoughts about that? It felt as if we had gone power crazy. Nights were impossible. 'Soft markers'. That was an extremely difficult day. As soon as we arrived, we were shown to this little room. What happens at the second midwife appointment? But that was too easy. I was told they needed to do a blood test to get a bench mark of my hormone levels. I let out an animal scream and [wife] kind of leapt onto me on the bed. So she said, 'Come back on Monday. Most scans are carried out by specially trained staff called sonographers. If you are not sure, you can contact them and ask. Unfortunately I was not met with a compassionate sonographer. You get extra care and monitoring as appropriate and baby is proactively treated. ABDOMINAL CIRCUMFERENCE MEASUREMENT AT 20 WEEK SCAN. It is also sometimes referred to as the mid-pregnancy scan . I want to stop having such horrible thoughts. Some people had underestimated how serious any abnormality found at this stage could be for the baby. I thought surely everything is ok, as they couldn't detect twins the week before. My partner watched the baby come out, and for a split second I saw a look of joy on his face. He started to scan me with a cold expression, then told me, 'it didn't look good' and that 'my womb looked raggedy'. It's quite common, perhaps 1 in 10 they find these, and within a few weeks they disappear. And so began the most bizarre day of my life. We'd just spent some time away on a, on a summer holiday and come back expecting to have this scan and be told, 'All fine. But my brain had been given a train of thought that was impossible to stop. So when that happened to us I really didn't worry, I thought, you know, it was literally the baby was in awkward position, they couldn't see the heart and that was why. I've been incredibly lucky to have such amazing support from Sam, my mum, and close friends and family. For example, you may be offered further tests that have a risk of miscarriage. Somehow, I walked from the sofa up to the bathroom and told my partner. And again, you know, you read all the books and it tells you 'this is the diagnostics', but after a while you don't hear that inside your head any more No, no, no, I'm fine - because everything's perfect. I was booked back in to discuss management options, if nothing had happened. And this baby sort of floated, and occasionally there was a slight movement, but it was very you could almost see that he was really poorly just from looking at the screen. I think there might be a problem'. No discussion, no quiet contemplation. And the next day we went back to the hospital and we had another scan with a specialist, and he confirmed it was a condition called holoprosencephaly, which I'd never heard of any of these words before, they were just such long words. The scan will look in detail at your babys bones, heart, brain, spinal cord, face, kidneys and abdomen. Picture every packed football staduim up and down the country - all healthy pregnancies and births. The first words I said were: "If there's anything wrong then it's my fault", I had been working 70, nearly 80 hours the previous weeks and pushed myself hard. Reading individual, real-life experiences can be a helpful resource, but it is never a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment from a qualified health care provider. 1. Saturday came. She wanted to have a look at the skull, which was the main thing, but she couldn't see it from where the baby was. Actually you could tell from the brain development as he scanned up through the chambers of the brain, that one quarter of the brain, one chamber was not evident. So he was about two weeks smaller than what he should have been. I feel empty and incomplete. So we decided to book an early 10 week private scan. And, it does not occur to you in the slightest. And at the end of the day however much we talked about it - that it was going to be the two of us to make the decision and me to actually you know, go through it and decide that that was what was going to happen for him - and I just, I didn't want to do it. As I lay down, and the sonographer started, I could see there was something wrong. And my partner and I would have a completely different life from the one we'd imagined. Mumsnet carries some affiliate marketing links, so if you buy something through our posts, we may get a small share of the sale (more details here). Instead, I had to raise a glass of water to my mouth, take a swig and swallow the tablet. And she said that, you know, as the, if the baby did develop further there would probably be other problems with internal organs that weren't really that visible at that stage. x. Could you tell? Severe chromosomal conditions such as Edwards' syndrome are now often picked up in the first trimester antenatal screening but itwill usually be more obviousat the 18- 20 week scan, though usually a firm diagnosis will not be made until one or two specialists have weighed up all available evidence about the baby - which usually means that another expert needs to scan the baby again, or until the woman has had an amniocentesis. hi ladies. The 18 -20 week fetal anomaly scan is a watershed in most pregnancies because for the majority of women it will be the last time they are scanned before giving birth. Again the legs were quite twisted, they said that the baby's sternum was very short - things weren't in proportion you know - the head was quite large, the neck was very thick, there wasn't really like a neck as such it was just things were kind of - there were lots of things that obviously the consultant could see that we weren't aware of. Which she reassured us that she'd be absolutely fine, this was a one-off. He sounded like a wild animal in pain, deep pain. How was that scan different from the dating scan? Nice people shouldn't hear about what we'd done. . And the doctor - because it was a doctor rather then just the, a sonographer or whatever the correct term is - was scanning my wife, and she hovered over the heart of the baby and said, 'Oh there's the heart, we'll come back to that'. I can't remember the exact words but she said, 'There might be some fatal problems with your baby'. And shortly after that, that scan we'd finished and the consultant leant back and said, 'I'm afraid we have some problems here'. So we'd gone through the Down's syndrome or worse scare, we'd had conversations about what we would do, if it was confirmed that it was Down's syndrome or another syndrome, another sort of chromosome abnormality. So we went home really and I sort of had to think about it all night. That they could have spotted something, or not? I know I could have delivered him in a quarter of the time, but I couldn't bear the thought of him leaving me. The 18-20 week antenatal scan and further tests, Ending the pregnancy for family & personal reasons, Deciding whether to see, hold and name the baby, Photographs and other mementoes of the baby, Saying goodbye to the baby - services & funerals, Coping with bereavement - women's experiences, Coping with bereavement - men's experiences, Men's ideas about their role in ending a pregnancy. or sort of light chat that we'd, we'd experienced before with previous scans. Slightly marked from our peers.