Dear All
My wife just gave birth to a beautiful daughter last Friday at TMC. I made a promise to share online with mummies-to-be on some of the hiccups we have throughout her pregnancy, and how the hiccups actually turned out to be needless worry.
This is to remind all mummies-to-be, to enjoy your pregnancy process, don't be overly concern over non-diagnostic screening (especially oscar test), and be confident with LO inside you.
Short summary of our LO from conceived till birth.
Hiccup 1
My wife conceived our LO in Nov 16. At her 12 weeks milestone, we did the usual oscar test at TMC. The results were normal for all items except there is absent of nasal bone. The absent of nasal bone increased our LO's risk of T21 also know as DS to 1:296 slightly below the borderline of 1:300. Our gynae assured us that our LO's oscar results are promising except the nasal bone which is more applicable to westerner (i.e. my wife has very small nose). Regardless, we were asked (1) to for Panaroma Test which extracts the baby's DNA through the mother's blood, it is 99% accuracy (though not diagnostic in nature), (2) to go for another scar scan in a few days time as the sonographer mentioned that she saw a glimpse of nasal bone in the ultrasound but not bright enough to be considered as present.
After a few days, we did a follow up oscar scan by another sonographer, she confirmed that the nasal bone is absent, and doctor TC Chang who is the head of TMC fetal specialist came in to confirm the result. The results made me and my wife very worried after we did alot of google search on absent of nasal bone. There wasn't many cases shared online in our local forum (motherhood or mummysg), which even make us more worried. Despite our gynae's assurance, my wife was still very concerned throughout the entire period. Fortunately, the Panaroma Test results came back 2-3 weeks, and it was cleared with low risk score of 1/10,000 of all the trisomy tested. We were initiated skeptical aboutthe test (google and stuff on the fake negative rate etc), but the gyane gave us reassurance to trust the scientific test result which has a proven track record.
Hiccup 2
We then managed to move on (at times still thinking about the absent of nasal bone). At week 20 (hurray), it's time for the detailed scan. At week 20's detail scan, our LO passed with flying colours, the scan detected her nasal bone, short but present (slightly below 5% percentile)with majority of the items around 50 percentile, and head nearer to 70-80 percentile.
The detailed scan really put us at ease. However, the blood flow resistance level was near the higher limit level on 1 side of her artery, and another side has just exceed the higher limit. Higher resistance will lead to restrictive growth on the baby. Thus, my wife was prescribed aspirin to thin the blood and allow more blood flows to our baby.
Hiccup 3
My wife then continued her pregnancy until 30 plus weeks. We've asked to do a 2nd level ultrasound to check the baby's growth and blood flow resistance level in the artery. To our horror, our LO's growth has reduce significantly with head at around 50-70% percentile, legs slightly below 5%, very short nasal bone, and abdominal circumference around 20-30%. Another round of google searched scared us on the term of dwarfism, and anchorplasia. There were little cases shared in our local website. Personally, i've read on 2 cases with the 2nd case sharing that there is a short nasal bone and other markers. There is some slight improvement to the blood flow resistance but still it is a the higher limit.
Moving forward to today, our LO is born healthy. She has a perfect little nose which looks like her mum, her length is ok and most probably her height is attributed to her mum's height (she is 154cm).
End of the day, what we wanted to share is, we hope all mummies-to-be, daddies-to-be out there, do not be overly worried about your baby, enjoy the process instead of worrying. Most importantly, trust your gyane's judgement and also give the oscar test a pinch of salt.
Have a great pregnancy ahead.
My wife just gave birth to a beautiful daughter last Friday at TMC. I made a promise to share online with mummies-to-be on some of the hiccups we have throughout her pregnancy, and how the hiccups actually turned out to be needless worry.
This is to remind all mummies-to-be, to enjoy your pregnancy process, don't be overly concern over non-diagnostic screening (especially oscar test), and be confident with LO inside you.
Short summary of our LO from conceived till birth.
Hiccup 1
My wife conceived our LO in Nov 16. At her 12 weeks milestone, we did the usual oscar test at TMC. The results were normal for all items except there is absent of nasal bone. The absent of nasal bone increased our LO's risk of T21 also know as DS to 1:296 slightly below the borderline of 1:300. Our gynae assured us that our LO's oscar results are promising except the nasal bone which is more applicable to westerner (i.e. my wife has very small nose). Regardless, we were asked (1) to for Panaroma Test which extracts the baby's DNA through the mother's blood, it is 99% accuracy (though not diagnostic in nature), (2) to go for another scar scan in a few days time as the sonographer mentioned that she saw a glimpse of nasal bone in the ultrasound but not bright enough to be considered as present.
After a few days, we did a follow up oscar scan by another sonographer, she confirmed that the nasal bone is absent, and doctor TC Chang who is the head of TMC fetal specialist came in to confirm the result. The results made me and my wife very worried after we did alot of google search on absent of nasal bone. There wasn't many cases shared online in our local forum (motherhood or mummysg), which even make us more worried. Despite our gynae's assurance, my wife was still very concerned throughout the entire period. Fortunately, the Panaroma Test results came back 2-3 weeks, and it was cleared with low risk score of 1/10,000 of all the trisomy tested. We were initiated skeptical aboutthe test (google and stuff on the fake negative rate etc), but the gyane gave us reassurance to trust the scientific test result which has a proven track record.
Hiccup 2
We then managed to move on (at times still thinking about the absent of nasal bone). At week 20 (hurray), it's time for the detailed scan. At week 20's detail scan, our LO passed with flying colours, the scan detected her nasal bone, short but present (slightly below 5% percentile)with majority of the items around 50 percentile, and head nearer to 70-80 percentile.
The detailed scan really put us at ease. However, the blood flow resistance level was near the higher limit level on 1 side of her artery, and another side has just exceed the higher limit. Higher resistance will lead to restrictive growth on the baby. Thus, my wife was prescribed aspirin to thin the blood and allow more blood flows to our baby.
Hiccup 3
My wife then continued her pregnancy until 30 plus weeks. We've asked to do a 2nd level ultrasound to check the baby's growth and blood flow resistance level in the artery. To our horror, our LO's growth has reduce significantly with head at around 50-70% percentile, legs slightly below 5%, very short nasal bone, and abdominal circumference around 20-30%. Another round of google searched scared us on the term of dwarfism, and anchorplasia. There were little cases shared in our local website. Personally, i've read on 2 cases with the 2nd case sharing that there is a short nasal bone and other markers. There is some slight improvement to the blood flow resistance but still it is a the higher limit.
Moving forward to today, our LO is born healthy. She has a perfect little nose which looks like her mum, her length is ok and most probably her height is attributed to her mum's height (she is 154cm).
End of the day, what we wanted to share is, we hope all mummies-to-be, daddies-to-be out there, do not be overly worried about your baby, enjoy the process instead of worrying. Most importantly, trust your gyane's judgement and also give the oscar test a pinch of salt.
Have a great pregnancy ahead.
