My baby has a single umbilical artery

[emeralda]

I am soooo scared. My doctor just called me over the phone to inform me of this condition my baby has plus dilated kidneys. I am wondering if the deep sonogram that the specialist will perform in my next appointment will be a 100% accurate to rule out birth defects, and if he does, what are other complications I should expect for the baby to have? WIll there be a chance that my baby can die before I give birth? during birth?, or after? Will she be born early? Will I be able to still have a vaginal birth? And if I decide to do an abortion incase there are severe birth defects, does that affect me trying to get pregnant again since it would be such a late term abortion? By the way, Im 29, 22 weeks pregnant and this is my first baby and my husband and I don't have a history of birth defects in the family that we know of. Also, how safe is the Amnio test really? I have done tons of research online, but would like a professionals advice. Thank you.

[gawani]

i am not a professional but i have very real personal experience that i am living right now. the ultrasound you will be getting will be looking for soft markers. soft markers are defects that they can for sure pick up with the ultrasound technology. soft markers also can point to a genetic disorder. this is what happened to me at my 23 wk ultrasound. they saw that my baby had what is called an omphalacele in which a little bit of the intestines are protruding into the umbilical cord. then they also saw that my baby had and extra finger on each hand and extra toe on each foot. these were the soft markers they found that can point to a genetic problem. they then said that i could have a amnio done to confirm what they were expecting from what they found on the ultrasound. they said that they thought it could be a trisomy 18 baby and he would not live longer than a week if born alive at all. i didn't want the amnio done at first because i didn't see any good reason for it at the time but then i decided to get it done because i wanted to make the decision in which way i would want to deliver my baby if something were very wrong with him. i would want to have a vag birth if he did have something wrong with him and he wasn't expected to live long because that is just best for my body and i would have a c-section if only he had a belly problem and a vag birth could cause him stress. so, i decided to get the amnio done. i was very scared. but, it was the easiest thing to get done! i didn't look ofcourse at the needle but it is much smaller than the kind of needle they use to take your blood. it is like a needle that looks like a hair. i hardly felt a pinch. it was so easy. only slight crampy feeling that lasted maybe a total of 15 min afterwards and it was not bad at all. my amnio did come back with the information that my baby does have trisomy 13 and will not live long outside of my body. the amnio and the ultrasound put together kinda confirm each other. I was told by my doctor that there was a 1/500 chance of something going wrong in the amnio.
so, i have decided on the vaginal birth because that is what would be best for my body in having another baby. abortions i don't know what that risk is on your body because it is something that was not an option for me since the cut off point is 23 wks with doctors in the state of michigan and i just can't do a D & E the procedure itself is just not inviting to me where as i can see having a baby either alive or asleep naturally. i am now 33 wks pregnant and have been living with knowing all of these details of my pregnancy for 10wks and counting. my family does not have a history of birth defects either and doctors have offered to do genetic testing on my husband and i to give us a statistic for this happening again but since we have two little girls now we are not interested in living by numbers alone. i will be having my baby as naturally as possible and without drugs if possible because i just want to do everything i can to keep my body in the best shape during and after the birth so i can try this again and have a healthy baby in the future. not sure if this helps you at all but i am just speaking from my medical experience i have had recently that sounds so familiar to yours and i just wanted to share what i know so far about these two tests. hope this helps. and i am very sorry that you are going through this too. i am scared as well. but, i find great comfort in the people around me who spend a great deal of time with me to help me through these last weeks. i hope that you too have support and love abounding for you in this time.