? for moms with a heart-shaped uterus.

MississippiCatfish · July 2012

At my 12 week ultrasound, the tech said, "Look! You have a perfect heart-shaped uterus!" This was clearly visible on the screen, and my husband and I both saw it. At that time, I didn't know that it could cause problems. I am now 31 weeks, having a lot of braxton hicks, and baby is breech. At my regular appointment this week, heart rate was dropping with each contraction and when I went for monitoring in L/D, I was actually having contractions every 3 minutes. These calmed down on their own, without any interventions in about an hour. No one checked my cervix, and they did not check FFN. No restrictions were given, I was told to just follow-up at my regular appointment in 2 weeks.

I asked my doctor at 28 weeks if part of the reason that the baby is still breech is because I have a heart-shaped uterus. She asked me where I heard that, and I told her that I saw and heard it at my 12 week ultrasound. She began to search through her computer and basically said, "Well, they didn't write that in the report." Meaning: it must not be true. I feel very unheard and belittled. I am an RN (not L/D), and I feel like I would take a patient seriously if they told me something like that, understanding that mistakes are made and sometimes we forget to document things. I feel as if she assumed that I was making this up, but I don't know why anyone would?

I feel like I should know what to do, but as a FTM, I really don't! I don't know whether or not she is following the protocol that she should. Should I continue with this doctor? Was it irresponsible for her not to run a few tests and check my cervix? (I feel it was.) She is also pushing for an ECV if baby doesn't turn, and I've read that is not often done with bicornuate uterus. I'm not sure that she is truly looking out for my best interest. Moms who've been there before, please offer your advice!

pixieprincss · July 2012

Is your uterus actually bicornate or just slightly arcuate? There is a big difference. A small septum need not be a big deal. I had a retroverted and slightly arcurate uterus before my PG with my son and the pregnancy "righted" both of those issues. While they were mentioned during our IF journey, no one was ever concerned about them during the actual pregnancy (and I did have a version with my transverse DS at 37 weeks). I'm also guessin that nothing at your anatomy scan flagged your OB's concern about your uterus shape, right?

In terms of baby being breech, you are still early enough in the pregnancy that it is perfectly normal. That said, it is never to early to start focusing on proper fetal positioning. Check out spinningbabies.com and read all of that. Do the exercises, get the name of a chrio who does the Webster technique and acupuncturist who does moxubistion on file. You'd want to do all of those things before a version anyway, since though a version is a low-risk procedure baby flipping on his own is a zero-risk option.

lizal · July 2012

I'm sorry I haven't been in your shoes, but I think your doctor should absolutely look into this further and not just write you off. I'm surprised with your contractions and the fact that he baby was clearly affected by them, that they didn't want to watch you more closely or as you said check cervix, FFN, etc.

Is the heart shaped uterus something they would have seen at your 20 week ultrasound? Maybe the tech was wrong, but either way I think the doctor should take it more seriously. I think I would call the doctor's office and talk to someone there about your concerns and if no one follows up with you appropriately maybe you should think about finding a new doctor.

CC1017 · July 2012

I'm also a FTM with a bicornuate uterus. I knew about my uterus before I got pregnant. I'm not sure that I have a lot of advice, but I can tell you my experience so far. I had an 8 week, 12 week, and 20 week ultrasound and then an additional ultrasound around 24 weeks to recheck my cervical length to make sure it wasn't prematurely shortening. Everything looked good at that appointment, so now we're just monitoring for signs of preterm labor, which the bicornuate uterus puts you at higher risk for.

I feel like I get a lot of BH too, but I was told to just keep drinking water. Also, I was told that an ECV would not be possible because there's a high risk of complications (luckily my baby is head down right now, I hope he stays that way). If your doctor still wants to do the ECV, you should insist that your uterine shape be investigated more. Although I feel like mine is really obvious - when I lay down, you can see that my stomach is lopsided.

MississippiCatfish · July 2012

Thanks for your input, ladies!!! I guess I've just seen a lot of posts lately saying, "I was in L/D for contractions, but my cervix was __ and fFn was neg, so everything's okay," and was a little bit concerned that these things weren't done. I feel comforted by the fact that those of you with experience aren't telling me that I should freak out:)

LauraT25, I know that she was actually referring to the shape of the uterus, but I have no point of reference to know the degree of malformation - I'm sure that it is not severe, just from memory, and by the fact that it wasn't documented. But baby's head has always, always, always been on the right side ...this week the doctor said, "That is one breech baby! I've never seen it look so obvious just by looking!" Strange comment, but she's kind of strange:)

Thanks again, everyone!

norcaljuly08 · July 2012

I have a bicornate uterus also and this is my second child. Both times my baby has flipped to the down position but my dr. wasn't concerned about it till 36 weeks so you still have time. I also knew about it before getting pregnant.

Ken&Anna · July 2012

I don't have a Bicornuate Uterus, but I do have a Unicornuate Uterus. It's in the same family of Uterine Abnormalities, but causes different concerns. Like other PPs, I knew about my uterus before getting pregnant. One thing I can tell you is that it's much harder to tell anything about the shape of your uterus while you're pregnant than when you're not pregnant. While you're pregnant, your uterus stretches to accommodate the baby, so it's very hard to tell what its actual shape is. Also, most of the imaging tests used to look at the shape of a uterus are not possible while you're pregnant.

I agree with the PP above who said that if you're concerned about all of these things, ASK! Bring a list of questions to your next appointment and ask them... you can say, "I've been doing some research on this and was wondering if you were going to check X, Y and Z." Doctors like it when their patients are well informed, so make sure you have accurate information (from a site like WebMD or the Mayo Clinic, not from Yahoo Answers or something like that...).

Any Mullerian Duct Abnormality does put you at higher risk for IUGR, Pre-Term Labor, Incompetent Cervix, and both early and late-term miscarriages, so definitely make sure you are being watched carefully.

If you have other questions, feel free to send me a PM. Good luck, and keep drinking LOTS of water!

Want a personalized experience?

? for moms with a heart-shaped uterus.

Re: ? for moms with a heart-shaped uterus.

Choose Another Board

Search Boards