Posted By Christina M on August 7, 2007

Spoiler alert.

It’s a boy!

The results are mostly good. The typical markers of Down Syndrome are absent, and all of the organs and limbs look good. He’s a very active tyke already, with a taste for the thumb. It also turns out that the blood screening did not turn up factors that increase our risk; rather, the opposite. Apparently the normal risk for my age is 1:70, and the adjusted rate taking into account both age and the hormone screening brings the risk level to 1:81. I do wish they would give more explanation over the phone than just “the triple screen came out positive for Down Syndrome, but don’t worry, there are a lot of false positives.”

One unexpected but fairly small worry did come up in the sonogram. The normal umbilical cord is supposed to have one vein and two arteries, and this one has one vein and one artery. One artery is usually enough to handle the blood flow, but it is sometimes associated with kidney problems, heart problems, or slow growth. They’ll be keeping an eye on this, meaning more closely monitoring the pregnancy. It can, in rare instances, be a marker for Down Syndrome, but not a strong one. Most of the other sometimes-associated problems would have been visible in the sonogram, and were not.

Now you know more than you ever wanted to about my pregnancy. Either you’re a sucker for baby stories, or you’re a friend or family member that I should be in better contact with. Either way, thank you for your prayers and interest.

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: pregnancy