20 week scan with issues....

[Cinderella]

My poor sister is really not finding her pregnancy easy at all. She's still vomiting daily, not as bad as the first 15 weeks but still after most meals. She went for her 20 week scan (she's due Sept 4th) this morning and found out she's on team blue, which she wasn't expecting, but we're all excited and she has decided to call him Max (this may change) but they also told her that the baby has echogenic bowel. She and her partner had blood tests to see if they're CF carriers and will get the results on the 26th, and she was told that she's at higher risk to have a Downs child or one with CF and they would know more by her next appointment.

I've googled for a while (I know, not a good idea) but most sites say that this finding is quite normal and most babies are fine but my sister said her doctors weren't overly reassuring and she's now set herself up for some bad news on the 26th.

Is it quite common? Does anyone have any experience with this? She's going to call me tomorrow for a chat, I'd love to be able to reassure her.

I've attached her current scan, you can't see much on it but that's our little Max!

 

[Zoya]

I don't have any advise,just wanna to say stay positive
Fingers crossed for your sister

 

[PrincessSoph]

I havent heard of it before but will keep my fingers crossed all is ok for her lil boy x

 

[firegal]

I've not heard of it either but wanted to wish her the best of luck. You often find that doctors give worse case scenario basically so that they don't get sued, but I'm sure everything will be fine

 

[ZubZub]

I don't know much about echogenic bowel, but firegal is right - doctors are terrible at giving the worst case scenario. At my 12 week scan the nuchal fold was 3mm. Upper limit of normal but you'd swear I was having a two-headed baby by their reaction. Everything else on the scan was perfect and when the bloods came in, they were fine. I don't know why doctors can't just keep their traps shut until they know something for sure. Keeping fingers crossed! XX

 

[Cinderella]

Thanks girls, I just find it odd that Google stalking was more reassuring than the doctor. These 9 days waiting for the blood results are going to be hell! We're really close and she's my baby sister so I just want to make sure everything's ok!

 

[staceymy]

Never heard of it before. I hope everything goes well at her next appointment tho.

 

[nikkip75]

hi,
i dont know much about an echogenic bowel but our little girl was found to have an echogenic foci on her heart. from what we have read about it its basically a lump of calcium.

we were told this at our 20 week scan, sent home and told to come back 4 days later for another scan with a specialist in fetal meds, she was a lot more reassuring and told us it could disappear by week 28 or it could be a sign of downs, there was nothing they could do about it and unless we wanted an amnio then that was that, we would just wait until baby was born.
the sonographer initially mentioned other syndromes such as edwards and turners but the specialist ruled these out.

they also found 2 cysts on our little girls brain but they dont really seem that worried about these either. we found the songrapher really unhelpful and had us like nervous wrecks for 4 days until we seen the specialist. im sure they like to worry us!

did they say this was a soft marker? if so then thats what we looked up on the net and got more info from there than we did at the hospital and to be honest if it wasnt for the internet we would have been a lot more worried!

i hope your sister gets lots of good news, and i know its no use telling her not to worry cos ive got so fed up of people saying this now! ill keep my fingers crossed for her

oh and ive got a nephew called max aswell and hes fab! if your little max turns out anything like ours your sister will have her hands full lol

 

[Cinderella]

Having spoken to my sister I can see why she's worried. She said they literally told her ha had echogenic bowel, that it meant there was a chance of having a baby with a chromosome abnormality and they would do further tests. They've only done the blood tests to check their carrier status for CF, they didn't do any more of a detailed scan or mention that would happen, they didn't mention an amnio either, even though I don't know if she would go through with that, as they'll be having the baby anyway, no matter the outcome of an amnio, so it's probably not worth the risk. I think they'd like to be prepared though, 4 months of being able to prepare for Downs or CF or CMV (the scariest of the bunch I think) would be better than worrying for four months and then being told they had a sick child.

I know there's a good chance nothing will happen, the baby will be fine and it'll just be swallowed blood in the meconium but I can see why she's worried. They told her she would miscarry at 6 weeks because they couldn't find a heartbeat and has been plagued with sickness ever since, I think she's just happy she got this far.

I hope your little girl is ok, at least the specialists were more reassuring!