Baby anencephaly

FreddieFrugal

Just wanted to update this thread in case anyone is ever searching for anencephaly information in the future and finds this.

We had our 12 week scan today for our second pregnancy (nearly 9 months after my wife's termination due to anecencephaly - a week less than a year since we started trying to conceive)

Im pleased to be able to say that the baby appears completely healthy and there is no sign of anencephaly whatsoever.

So it really was worth trying again despite the fears we had.

Thank you

Polmop

Thats lovely news, congratulations

Dill

That is good news. While you may know that statistically it's very unlikely to happen again, it's only natural that it would have been at the back (or even front!) of your mind.

I hope your next update is to tell us that you've welcomed your healthy baby into the world

spend_or_save

Thats great news Freddie, delighted for both of you, having recently suffered our 2nd miscarriage in 10 months i know how devestating and hard to deal with the loss of a pregnancy can be, all the best going forward with things.

cheers

gayleygoo

Lovely update! Congratulations

I know of at least two friends of mine who have traveled to England for a termination as the baby was too sick to survive outside the womb. Organising the whole trip and procedures hit them hard at an already difficult time. They went on to have healthy babies afterwards though

Good luck to you both!

ravilious_fan

gayleygoo wrote: »

Lovely update! Congratulations

I know of at least two friends of mine who have traveled to England for a termination as the baby was too sick to survive outside the womb. Organising the whole trip and procedures hit them hard at an already difficult time. They went on to have healthy babies afterwards though

Good luck to you both!

Britain has the dubious reputation of being the abortion capital of Europe.

However, in cases where there is a clear medical need for it, it should of course be allowed.

Good luck OP, sorry you had to go through this with your first baby. Let us know how you get on

thorsoak

Wonderful news!

nmlc

Evening everyone

I don't normally post - but felt I needed to, so many congratulations on your news.

My husband and I also lost a baby girl to anencehaly 17 years ago, we already had a perfectly healthy nearly 2 year old son at that time. The hospital were brilliant, our baby's problems were discovered from having the "triple test" bloods done at 16 weeks of pregnancy, I got a telephone call at night 6.45pm on the Monday night from the hospital saying the blood test results had some high levels in them and that an appointment had been made for me the next morning at the hospital with the consultant and I needed to be there at 10am. The nurse that phoned us to tell us this did say that if they had my conception dates incorrect then the test results could all just be incorrect, but they wanted to check everything out to be sure. We unfortunately got the dreadful news that our baby girl had anencephaly, the consultant explained before they did the scan, what the blood test results were indicating, basically the amino-fetal protein in the blood should be at a certain level at 16 weeks pregnant, it's only present whilst the foetus is forming, if the level is higher than what is considered normal, the fetal protein is basically leaking into the mum's bloodstream ie, indicating a hole somewhere in the foetus - ie the spinal column normally. Anencephaly is the severest form of spina bifidal (sp?) which is normally a hole at the bottom of the spine, with anencephaly the hole is in the back of the head/top of the spine. When they scanned our baby they turned the screen so I couldn't see, but hubby sat so he could and he said she was perfect all her fingers and toes etc were there, until they scanned the top of her back and back of her head and there was just the gaping hole, they then let me see the screen, her heartbeat was also not as it should be. It was the most devastating news any parent can receive, and because baby was over 14 weeks they don't do want they call a normal termination, I was admitted to hospital the next morning, and given the same hormone drugs they give you to start of labour, and had to endure 22 hours of labour to have our daughter naturally with pain relief, horrific but deemed safer than doing an "abortion". We couldn't fault the doctors and nurses that were with us through that desperately sad time, there was no chance our baby would survive if I was lucky enough to give birth to a live baby as soon as she was born she would have died or died soon after as the brain is laying open and exposed and of course all the waters had not been prevented from entering her brain. We had everything done that we were offered post mortem, genetics - and like so many - we just told they couldn't find anything and it was just one of those unexplained things, especially as we already had a perfectly healthy boy. I desperately wanted another baby, so lost weight, started taking the folic acid, and fell pregnant with a boy who is fine, now a strapping 15 year old. All I would say is that there's not always a choice of whether to terminate - we were worried about having to make that choice but heartbreakingly that was taken from us as she was just so sick, we could see her heartbeat failing on the screen. I wouldn't ever criticise anyone for whatever decision they made in those circumstances you can only be guided by what the professionals advise, but the doctors, nurses and consultants that were helping us worked incredibly hard to investigate everything so their diagnosis and our ultimate decision was made with the best information they could give us. Had she not been so sick they were ready to arrange for an appointment at a top London specialist hospital that we would have gone straight to - to see top consultant's there for their advice and care.

Sorry this has turned into a bit of an epic - it's 17 years ago, and there's not a day goes by that I don't think about our baby girl, she would have been 18 this June. We were lucky enough to go on to have our youngest boy - we know how lucky we were to be blessed with him.

Many congratulations to you x

nmlc x

pigpen

nmlc... I'm so sorry to hear your story.. no matter how long ago it was they are still in your heart.. So pleased you got your rainbow boy too! It is always a huge worry having another after a loss, especially one so tragic I'm sure must be harder still. Thank you for sharing. These things just happen sometimes without reason or cause through noones fault. xx