Back to the beginning

Thanks to my fabulous friend Carly, I can now start sharing our experiences with friends and family, whilst at the same time raising awareness of a relativity unknown syndrome. I also hope to provide other expectant parents, in a similar position, with a first hand account of what it is like to have your unborn baby diagnosed with a problem.

I warn you, this will be an honest, and at times emotional account, but one that will hopefully also be filled with joy and happiness.

Over the next few posts I aim to get you up to speed with where we are at now (26 weeks in to the pregnancy), and then we can all continue the journey together. So here goes...

Thursday 30th August 2012

As me and my husband Tim sat in the waiting room, we were filled with excitement, but yet I had a funny twinge, nerves maybe. When we were finally called in by the sonographer, we didn't know what to expect. Almost instantly we were told that the pregnancy had started as twins, but that one baby had died. We felt a tinge of sadness, but little did we know that wasn't going to be the biggest shock of the day.

After 15 minutes or so, we heard the words "I need to go and speak to someone, there's a problem". Instantly I burst in to tears, and Tim sat silently, Squeezing my hand. We were ushered in to a side room and told to wait for a doctor or midwife. The midwife seemed anxious, and started by telling us that the sonographer shouldn't have told us what she did. I didn't care, there was a problem and I wanted to know what!

We were told that our baby had a nuchal fold reading of 6.2mm, and that the highest it should be was 2.4mm. Apparently it was an indicator of a 'high risk pregnancy', and meant that our baby had a high chance of having a chromosomal problem. Little more was known until my blood test results, so we left feeling numb, and with more questions than answers.

Friday 31st August 2012

We returned to the hospital after a restless night, and lots of unknowns. 

"We now know that your pregnancy is high risk, and that your baby has a 1 in 9 chance of having a chromosomal problem. At your age, the risk is usually in the 1000's. for now though there isn't any more that we can tell you. You will need an invasive, slightly risky procedure should you wish to find out more". 

We left the hospital again with still so many questions, what are chromosomal disorders for one! 

Being a mathematician, I tried to make sense of these figures on the way home. 1 in 9 chance that our baby will have a problem, just over 11%. At that point Tim put his positive spin on the situation (as he always does) and said "yes but that means 8 out of 9 chance our baby won't have a problem, so lets stay positive for now!". Easier said than done.

So that weekend, we had a decision to make.... Do we book in for a procedure, known as a CVS, to find out exactly what is (or isn't wrong with our baby), or do we just leave it?

After reading the pamphlet from the hospital, I became fixated on the statistic that around 1% of these diagnostic procedures ended in miscarriage. Little did I know that we'd be faced with a statistic far more harrowing later on.