Quote of the day...

"... on that occasion she had felt great satisfaction deep down for the fact that [her son] gave her life a meaning far beyond any satisfaction she could derive from doctoral dissertations or archaeological digs. If there is a meaning in life it must be centred upon a person, she thought, nothing else. It had to be a person." (Henning Mankell: Kennedy's Brain)

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Nuchal translucency scan

Thirteen weeks today! Today I had an important scan, called a nuchal translucency. This is one of the tests they run to determine if your foetus is likely to have any chromosomal abnormalities. They do a specific measurement of the amount of fluid behind the neck in the 'nuchal fold', with bigger measurements suggesting poorer outcomes. This measurement is also considered with blood tests and you end up given a risk ratio. I won't be getting my risk ratio until I meet with my obstetrician on Monday but my nuchal fold measurement was 2.38mm which is within the normal range. But obviously the blood tests will complete the picture.

As part of the nuchal translucency I had a lengthier scan and walked away with a lot of images on a CD! It was pretty exciting to see the head, legs, arms, feet and hands even in something so small (7cm). I was also fortunate to have Mum and Dad in town at the moment so they came with us and were able to see little Sprout moving around and shaking his or her fists at the sonographer for waking him/her up!

I've attached some photos here - on the black and white one you can clearly make out the shape of a side-on picture of the foetus, with the head on the right of the screen.


This 'orange' photo is looking front on to the foetus in a sort of 3-dimensional image. Quite weird!!! The foetus has his/her hand up next to his/her head.

 I will write another post on Monday once I've heard what is hopefully some good news from the obstetrician.
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4 comments:

  1. Chartreuse15 October, 2010 02:02

    Yep. I was there and saw my grandchild for the first time. Can't say I noticed any resemblance yet to Mum or Dad (or maybe Grandma?). But it sure is an active little sprout. Wouldn't lie still for a minute.

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  2. Zoe15 October, 2010 09:53

    It was great you could get there - it never occurred to me that you wouldn't have been to one before!

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  3. Brandon15 October, 2010 11:17

    Third attempt at posting a comment on this Blog!! (this time not using firefox).

    Anyways it was amazing to see our little sprout moving around soo much:) and to see so much more detail! it's much more than just a jellybean now:)

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  4. Zoe15 October, 2010 11:47

    Poor sweety - I use Firefox and have no problems :-(

    Sprout was definitely a foetus on a mission yesterday - bucking and waving hands around. In another 6 weeks or so I'll start to feel that movement from the inside!! :-S

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