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2nd Trimester
RobMayra
member
Fetal Hydronephrosis
RobMayra
member
I just had my 20 week ultrasound and was told that my baby had fetal hydronephrosis on both kidneys; one measured 1.2 and the other 1.6. The doctor told us that he most likely will need surgery after birth and has a soft marker for down syndrome. Everything else looked good and normal, including his bladder. I read that sometimes the kidneys go back to normal before the baby is born or right after birth. The doctor said it was very unlikely that his kidneys would go back to normal on their own before birth because of their size. I hope everything turns out ok. I am suppose to see her again in 4-6 weeks for a follow-up ultrasound. Keep us in your prayers. If you have any experience in this, I would love to hear any words of wisdom.
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Re: Fetal Hydronephrosis
My son has this as well, and I was told by the ultra sound tech that if she were not finding out the sex of the baby and was told that she would know it was a boy just because of the hydronephrosis.
I found this out around 20 weeks and we are now 32 weeks, they have gotten better but they are still slightly high enough that the doctor has referred us to the infant kidney doctor to do a meet and greet before he is born.
My appointment is on Friday, so I'll let you know if there is anything new they tell us.
This happened to me with my son. At the 20 week ultrasound, we were told that his kidneys looked large and there was a lot of fluid around them. They told us we would have ultrasounds every four weeks until delivery and then he would have an ultrasound right after he was born. Both the ultrasound tech and the doctor told us that this was the most common abnormality noted in ultrasounds and was especially prevalent in boys.
With my son they just followed him with the ultrasounds every month until he was born to make sure the problem was not getting dramatically worse and after he was born they did an ultrasound on him directly and said every thing look perfectly normal. As far as it being a soft marker for downs, this scared me as well but it is only true really in the presence of other markers. This feature in isolation really means very little with regards to downs syndrome.
Google will be your worst enemy for a while so I would highly suggest just taking it one day at a time and know there really is nothing you can do until you give birth and see what the story is then. In the majority of cases no treatment is needed either because there is no problem to fix by birth (like in my sons case) or the problem will resolve itself within a few months. Surgery is only rarely needed. Just mention it to whatever pediatrician you pick and remind them at the hospital to send him for an ultrasound after birth. My son had his about 18 hours after birth.
I'm surprised that your doc was so "sure" about everything. My DD had this (found at the 20 week ultrasound). And they just said it was something to watch. I had many follow up ultrasounds with a perinatologist, and each time one of the kidneys was still enlarged. It caused me a lot of stress and worry.
I did a lot of reading, and basically it is a SOFT marker for downs. So soft that many other countries don't even count it as a marker. I read a study that said that telling mothers they had a soft marker actually did more harm than good (due to stress and unnecessary amnios).
We had to do some testing after DD was born (VCUG, not pleasant) and ultrasounds. And it cleared up on its own. THIS is likely to happen. And if it doesn't, it is my understanding that the surgery is simple and that in the grand scheme of things that could go wrong, this is something that is easy to fix, etc.
I'm going to try to go back and find my measurements for you. I actually think mine were 1.6 and 1.7 as well.
You can do a google search for other posts on the bump like this "hydronephrosis site:community.thebump.com" and you'll see many other posts from worried mommies and it turned out to be a-okay. You'll probably also see some posts from mommies who's LO's had to have the surgery and all turned out well. I hope this helps!
DS born Dec 10, 2013