Fetal Echo

Chloenme

Hi, I'm in NY and go to Westmed. I'm pregnant with singleton, 21W. My doctor said that since we went through IVF. We need a fetal Echo scan. (Since my first visit with him) 12W To check that their aren't abnormalities in the baby's heart. We had several U/S and baby's HB is strong. I just want to know if anyone was recomended this? My husband wants to cancell that u/S. He thinks is not important.

monimu13

I know a lot of doctors recommend it, it was never brought up to me...so I didn't have one.

FutureMrsW9

Yup, lots of doctors are recommending it now and I did have one.  I'm actually going tomorrow for a follow-up echo.  The first echo revealed a leaky pulmonary valve, but since then I've learned from pediatricians and other doctors that all babies have leaky valves before they're born and it's not something to worry about at all, in fact most adults have slightly leaky valves and it's totally normal.  The pediatric cardiologist also said that we had some of the clearest pictures that she's ever seen and it could have been that our pics were just THAT clear that she's seeing something that's typically there but not visible for most...but since she was able to see it she wants me to come back.  So I guess we'll find out tomorrow if it's anything to worry about.  My MFM at my A/S also said that she thinks the premise of IVF babies needing echos is ridiculous, and that the occurrence of heart defects is actually much higher for babies of obese mothers but the echo isn't recommended to them...so who the heck knows.  All that said, I have mixed feeling about it and I'm not sure I would do it again with any future babies.  It's just hard to not do it when you have doctors recommending it, it's like I'm afraid if I don't do it something actually will be wrong uuuugh!  Sorry, I know this probably didn't answer your questions but maybe my experience will help you decide what to do.

lks18

I had one yesterday. Seems pretty standard for ivf babies. My understanding is that the heart defects they associate with ivf babies are actually heart defects associated with twin pregnancies, but since so many ivf pregnancies are twins the correlation is confounded. At any rate, I'm having twins so I'll take it! Good results, babes' hearts look fine.

twistsandturnsto2

We were offered one but declined because 1. Like pp said it's a very small percentage of defects found and 2. Nothing looked abnormal during our regular a/s so we are happy with that.
As soon as we balked at the recommendation from our OB, she said she didn't think it was necessary anyway. It's really going to come down to what you and your H are comfortable with. The way it was explained to us was that if 1 out of a 100 "normal" babies have a heart defect, 2 out of a 100 IVF babies have one. The odds of having an increased risk just didn't compel us to do the further testing.

badrianne

Can they treat it somehow? Or what would be the purpose of diagnosising a heart defect early?

PhillyJ33

My practice didn't require it. They felt that the u/s equipment at the MFM office was strong enough to see anything major at the a/s scan. That said, due to an issue at my 20 week scan with the umbilical cord, they wound up having me get one for reassurance. But if that didn't happen, I wouldn't have gotten one.

FutureMrsW9

badrianne said:

Can they treat it somehow? Or what would be the purpose of diagnosising a heart defect early?

Most likely not in utero, but if there was something seriously wrong they would at least know ahead of time and could put together a plan for treatment for after birth if it was something that needed to be attended to immediately.

Chloenme

@FutureMrsW9: Thanks, yes, you do answer my concern. I think this time I'll listen to H, and just cancell it! They can't do anything right now, just worry this mama!
Thanks again to all your replys!