Pregnant after 35

Does anyone know...if my Mother had...

Hello everyone,

I was just wondering...out of curiosity, my mother had a baby the year before I was born (1972) with a rare neural tube defect (anencephaly).  I realize that was a long time ago and doctors know a lot more about things like the benefits of folic acid (which I was taking for a few months before becoming pregnant), but if my Mom had a baby with a neural tube defect, does that make me at higher risk of having a baby with a neural tube defect?  I always knew my Mom had a baby that died after 4 hrs but never knew it was a neural tube defect until recently.  My OB has me scheduled to see a genetic counselor around week 20 (this is the norm for women over 35 at my OB office - not because they've identified a problem) so I was just curious if anyone had more knowledge of this than I do.  Thanks! 

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Re: Does anyone know...if my Mother had...

  • We recently lost a little girl with a neural tube defect called encephelocele.  It is similar but different than your moms defect.  I was told that since there were no other genetic disorders identified along with our defect that we have the sam
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  • I am very sorry to hear about your loss!  But, thanks for your feedback, I was just really wondering and don't want to stress my husband about it so thought I'd ask others on here. 
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  • As far as I can remember from my maternity rotation in nursing school, it depends on the type of neural tube defect. Something like spina bifida (where part of the spinal cord/sac is outside the body) is a defect that is more likely if you have a famil

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  • Thanks too Daniele, I definitely plan to ask my OB and maybe also the genetic counselor but since my next OB appointment is the end of next week and my genetic counselor appointment is almost a month away, I just thought I'd see if anyone else knew. 
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  • Hi, lurking from TTC35.

    I have a bifida occulta. This means I have an opening in my spinal column but the cord does not emerge. I have no outward symptoms of this, it was discovered when I was being treated for (unrelated as far as we know) scol

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  • Just noticed you're already 16 weeks, at this point if there were going to be a neural tube defect it would already be visible. Did you do any first tri prenatal screening?
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  • Hi Mommiella,

     I'm sorry for not responding sooner, I often don't get on my computer much over the weekend and then haven't been on here earlier this weekend.  I do appreciate your response though.  You are right, I am 16 weeks alr

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