All4Baby » 20 week scan https://all4baby.co.za From Pregnancy to birth to baby and beyond. The place to find, chat, and share. Tue, 15 Jul 2014 14:19:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=161 What to expect from your 20 week scan https://all4baby.co.za/birth/labour-delivery/1275/expect-20-week-scan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=expect-20-week-scan https://all4baby.co.za/birth/labour-delivery/1275/expect-20-week-scan/#comments Wed, 09 Jul 2014 09:17:10 +0000 https://all4baby.co.za/?p=1275 Your mid-pregnancy (20 week) scan is the most important, as it is this scan that can detect the presence of a Congenital Heart Defect in your unborn baby.

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The mid-pregnancy scan can (and should) seem like a natural part of the process in any pregnancy – between 17 and 21 weeks, your OBGYN will either conduct the scan himself or send you off to a sonographer who will perform an in-depth scan of your baby.

To a mom wary of Congenital Heart Defects (CHDs), this is the scan – the results of which will leave them filled with relief or fear because it is also the scan that shows the presence or lack thereof of a CHD.

This scan highlights potential defects in the foetus. It’s also the most important scan as it gives you the time you’ll need to prepare for life with a defect.

Checking for anomalies in your unborn baby

Sometimes referred to as the “anomaly” scan, it is exactly that – a check for anomalies in your unborn baby.

The sonographer will examine your baby’s organs and take measurements. He or she will look at;

  • The shape or structure of the baby’s head
  • The baby’s face (to check for a cleft lip)
  • The spine to check that the bones align
  • That the skin covers the spine at the back
  • The abdominal wall to make sure that all the internal organs are covered; and
  • The stomach, kidneys, arms, legs, feet and hands which will also be checked for defects here.

Checking your baby’s heart

It is during this scan that your baby’s heart will be checked. Your OBGYN will ensure that the top two chambers (atria) and bottom two chambers (ventricles) are the same size. He or she will also make sure that the valves open and close with each beat of the heart and that the major veins and arteries carrying blood to and from the heart are in good shape.

Asking the right questions

As part of our awareness efforts, we ask expectant parents to make sure they ask five very important questions during this scan:

  1. Is the heart rate normal?
  2. Is the heart function normal?
  3. Do you see four chambers in the baby’s heart?
  4. Are the heart and stomach in the right position?
  5. Do you look at arteries as part of your anomaly scan?

For the moms who want to delve a bit deeper, you are also fully within your rights to ask:

  1. Are there two upper chambers (left and right atria), each with a valve controlling blood flow out of them?
  2. Are there two lower chambers (left and right ventricles), each with a valve controlling blood flow out of them?
  3. Do the vessels of the heart (aorta and pulmonary artery) cross each other as they exit?
  4. Is the wall between the two lower chambers intact, without any holes?
  5. Does everything in the heart look normal?

Some heart conditions (and bowel obstructions) might not be seen until later in the pregnancy or even after the child is born (which is why asking for a pulse oximetry test to be performed on your baby before taking him home is so vital) but having a thorough scan at this point can rule out these conditions and put your mind at ease.

What if the news from this scan is bad?

If a problem is found or suspected, you will be told immediately and will probably be advised to set up a more thorough exam with an actual cardiologist. Here, what is called a foetal echo scan dives a bit deeper (so to speak) for a more thorough look at the heart.

Detection leads to preparation

Why is this scan important? The answer is simple – knowledge is power.

Detecting a potential CHD before birth allows for planning. Planning for the rest of the pregnancy; planning for a safer delivery; and planning for the necessary teams to be prepped and ready to go following the birth of the baby.

Natural birth, for example, might be too traumatic for a CHD baby and planning for a Caesarean could be an option to ease the path.

Some babies are “born blue”, which means they would need immediate attention and knowing that this is a possibility would mean parents and their birthing teams can prepare to have the right skills ready and waiting.

1 in 100 babies

Any pregnancy should be a special time for moms but the reality is that 1 in every 100 babies born will have a CHD.

Many of these are minor, some even fix themselves and most of those that don’t, can be corrected through surgery – but asking the right questions during the 20 week scan and then demanding a pulse-ox before you take your baby home can make sure these pregnancies have the happy endings that they deserve.

About the Author: Andrea Slater is mother to a CHD angel and all she wants is to help other tiny people get a fighting chance in this life. Readers are welcome to visit her blog for more on Hudson’s journey or visit www.hudsoninitiative.org and www.facebook.com/thehudsoninitiative

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Babies shouldn’t die of a broken heart, says Hudson Initiative https://all4baby.co.za/birth/labour-delivery/405/babies-shouldnt-die-broken-heart-says-hudson-initiative/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=babies-shouldnt-die-broken-heart-says-hudson-initiative https://all4baby.co.za/birth/labour-delivery/405/babies-shouldnt-die-broken-heart-says-hudson-initiative/#comments Tue, 22 Apr 2014 07:52:23 +0000 https://all4baby.co.za/?p=405 Around 1 in every 100 babies is born with a heart defect, and in South Africa, many of those go undetected.

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Hudson Turkish Slater-Smith was only four months old when he died of a broken heart. Or, to be more accurate, a Congenital Heart Defect (CHD). In September 2013, his devastated parents launched an ambitious campaign – The Hudson Initiative – to make South Africans more aware of CHDs, and to introduce compulsory testing for newborns.

1 in 100 babies

Around 1 in every 100 babies is born with a heart defect, and in South Africa, many of those go undetected. It’s estimated that at least one in every five babies who dies of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) was an undetected CHD sufferer – but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Cardiac surgeon Professor Robin Kinsley says advances in paediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery have made it possible for survival into adulthood for the majority of babies born with congenitally malformed hearts, but this is not the case on the African continent.

“Here, this is a dream as roughly 280 000 neonates born every year on the continent are left untreated, demonstrating the natural history of the congenitally malformed heart by default,” he says. “This is due in point to lack of finances, lack of locally developed personnel and proper understanding of the problem.”

The statistics get scarier when you hear that globally, twice as many children die from congenital heart defects each year than from all forms of childhood cancer combined, yet funding for pediatric cancer research is five times higher than funding for CHD.

Creating awareness

The Hudson Initiative faces a long, arduous road – one that is starting with awareness, will encompass a growth in research funding and the collection of funds to help families who cannot afford the surgeries needed to help their babies, and will end in the creation of Hudson’s Law.

To explain the end goal, detecting CHDs is as simple as administering a test, called Pulse Oximetry, which measures how much oxygen is in a baby’s blood, after the baby is 24 hours old. This dramatically increases their chances of survival, says Andrea Slater, the driving force behind The Hudson Initiative.

“This is the most important part of our focus: We’re going to make sure that screening for heart defects become as normal a scan as the Downs Syndrome check at 20 weeks. We’re going to make sure that Pulse Oximetry tests are performed on all newborn babies before they are sent home. And we’re going to make sure that the terms CHD and congenital heart defect is no longer foreign or misunderstood,” says Slater.

“If mothers are armed with the information they need to protect their babies from CHD-related issues, these deaths could potentially be avoided. CHDs are scary but they’re not the end. CHD babies live. They thrive. Post-surgery, hope is very much alive.”

Pulse Oximetry

Ultimately, the Initiative will realise the introduction of Hudson’s Law, which will see Pulse Oximetry testing becoming compulsory. In the meantime, the initiative is raising money to fund CHD awareness campaigns and pay for Pulse Oximetry testing in infants. The long-term goal is to pay for surgeries needed by babies whose families who cannot afford them.

#JustAsk

Interested parties can sign a petition and spread the word by visiting www.hudsoninitiative.org. They can also be part of the social media campaign using the #JustAsk hashtag, which prompts expectant mothers to do three things:

  • Ask your OB Gyn for information on CHDs. Speak to your OB about the foetal echocardiogram during your 20 week scan.
  • Ask for a Pulse Oximetry (PulseOx) screen before you take your child home.
  • Ask other humans who know. Join pages like The Hudson Initiative on Facebook, where we bring focus to CHDs, what’s being done about them in South Africa, what mothers can do to protect their kids going forward and raise funds to help raise awareness around CHDs.

“Our journey with Hudson was a very real, very painful, very testing and an extraordinarily fulfilling one. We like to think he chose us because he knew we would do something to address the concerning statistics around the sheer number of babies who are sent home with undiagnosed CHDs. We’re going to change things on behalf of the boy who changed our world.”

About the Author: Andrea Slater is mother to a CHD angel and all she wants is to help other tiny people get a fighting chance in this life. Readers are welcome to visit her blog for more on Hudson’s journey. For more information visit www.hudsoninitiative.org

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