Hey everyone!
Since Darrell and I had the issue with the website at the beginning of the month, we have gotten a few comments that were questionable to us, so they were marked as spam. If you have commented and don’t see your comment, let me know so that I won’t mark you as spam. 🙂
Most of the comments really did look like spam. The only one was questionable was this one:
“There is no definite estimate of exactly how accurate ultrasound is at detecting disabilities, and there are both false negatives and false positives. As far as detecting fetal abnormalities goes, several points have to be bornt in mind :a) Not every problem can be diagnosed with ultrasound — conditions which do not manifest as a structural or gross functional abnormality (such as a very abnormal heart beat or mental retardation) may be missed.b) Not every problem which can be detected will be diagnosed. For example, in many ultrasound examinations the baby’s fingers and toes are not counted, even though it is possible to do so should it be necessary.c) The ability to detect abnormality in the fetus at an ultrasound exam depends on a number of factors, such as the size and position of the fetus, the amount of amniotic fluid around the fetus, the body habitus of the mother (whether she is fat or slim), the type of equipment used, and, most importantly, the skill and experience of the operator.d) Some problems (such as anencephaly) are more readily diagnosed than others (such as cleft palate).The accuracy of ultrasound for dating a pregnancy depends on at what point during the pregnancy the ultrasound is taken. Pregnancy dating is most accurate during the first eighteen weeks of pregnancy. Measurement of the sac at five to seven weeks is not accurate. Measuring the crown-rump length gives an accuracy of plus or minus three days at seven weeks; this test can be used from the seventh to the fourteenth week. Between fourteen and twenty-six weeks, measurements of the biparietal diameter, the femur length and abdominal circumference are generally used. The accuracy is plus or minus seven to ten days. The accuracy further declines with advancing gestation age.”
Now I am pretty sure it is either Spam or someone who just hasn’t read the blog, but I feel like I need to answer these questions/statements.
#1 – We are well aware that there is no estimate at exactly how accurate an ultrasound is at detecting disabilities. It really depends upon the ultrasound and how good the technician is. Our first wasn’t diagnosed with his fatal birth defect at any of his ultrasounds, so we know all about false negatives. It is because of the chance of false positives that we didn’t do any of the other testing that we were asked about during our first pregnancy. So this pregnancy, we do keep in mind that there are chances for false positives/negatives, but we are seeing a higher risk doctor with a better ultrasound machine and we are seeing him more often to make sure that everything still LOOKS like it is going normally.
a) At this point in our pregnancy, we aren’t to concerned with the other abnormalities as if they are found, most of them are found after birth and many of them can be treated fairly successfully.
b) Many normal ultrasound examinations don’t count fingers and toes, but because of our history (Amniotic Band Syndrome), our MFM does to make sure that there aren’t any bands constricting baby. This is really important because Amniotic Bands are really hard to see on ultrasounds unless they are constricting baby, so it is something the doctor is aware of and is looking for.
c) We are aware of this as per our history where we had a doctor with an older ultrasound machine and a very picky child with our first, so no abnormalities were seen even though his brain was growing outside of his skull. That is why this pregnancy we are seeing a MFM every 4 weeks for an ultrasound to make sure that everything is going like it should be. If anything seems to change between visits, the MFM has assured us that he will up our visits to keep up with the progress of baby.
d) We know that it doesn’t take much time before baby does a lot of changes. We are being very closely monitored and they are measuring things every 4 weeks. By 22 weeks, we will have had 5 ultrasounds and each ultrasound measures baby a little different. We aren’t concerned with pregnancy dating because we have done infertility treatments, so we know EXACTLY when we conceived. Our only concern/reason for the ultrasounds is to make sure that baby does not have a fatal birth defect. We are just hoping to have a living, breathing baby who we will get to raise by the end. Granted, we hope for a healthy baby, and getting our multiple ultrasounds is currently the only thing we can do to make sure that baby is ok. There is no idea on why Amniotic Bands happen or what causes them and many people who have them don’t have the bands affect the baby. We are some of the “lucky” few and knowing that we did everything we can to take care of our children is what we want. These ultrasounds are our way of taking care of this child.
If, by chance, we end up with ABS again and it is caught early enough, we have an option to go in for fetal surgery to have the bands cut. This is a risky surgery, but we have done research on it (even knowing that very few mothers have it happen more than once) so we would be prepared if it happened again. We would probably only go in for surgery if the bands are constricting baby’s head or umbilical cord. Possibly hands and feet, but it really depends on when the bands happen and how they will affect baby as the surgery has a small chance to actually put you in preterm labor and possibly deliver baby. There are always risks associated with everything, but you have to weigh them against what would happen if you don’t take that risk.
So that is my response to the comment. I wasn’t sure if I would post it, but I feel that I needed to be open about this and to address this issue in case there are others who happen to stumble across this page and who might have these same ideas.