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Single Umbilical Artery? (Long)

GolfWidow001GolfWidow001 member
in June 2014 Moms
Ladies...part of this post is to reassure myself, the other part is to see if anyone else has had a LO with this...

Today during our a/s, she showed us we are having a boy (yay!) and continued to check all of the organs,etc. While she was doing this, she was filling us in on what she was measuring and would make comments about how it was measuring well or "looks great". When she scanned the umbilical cord, she noticed there was only one artery (normally, there's two). Her words during this finding, "this isn't anything to worry about. It's In the umbilical cord and not inside the baby. It happens pretty often. The only difference will be, you will end up having more ultrasounds to monitor growth." She then again, said its nothing to worry about.

After our appt, we had our normal OB check up, which the doctor only made mention that we had an ultrasound, but made no mention of the umbilical cord.

So I left feeling great! A healthy baby boy...then I get home and make the mistake of going to doctor google. Google said that's it's the most frequent condition of the umbilical cord and is usually not serious. In serious cases, a baby can have renal, cardiac and gastrointestinal problems. This can also be seen in Trisomy 18. (To give a little background, DHs sister had Trisomy 18, but doc wasn't concerned at our first appt because of my age and it didn't happen on my side of the family). I saw this and instantly started to worry. BUT, I keep telling myself, Trisomy 18 babies have low birth weight (ours was measuring a week ahead) and the cord is just one of the many things they would see in a baby with trisomy 18. Since everything else was normal, i have to think our baby will be one of those cases where it will hopefully be a nonissue like most of the cases that arise.

Can you tell I'm trying to reassure myself? :) until google, I had no reason to believe there was anything wrong. I should know better!

Anyone else know of this? Thank you for listening...DH doesn't seem the least bit worried about it, so wanted to see what kind of experience you have!
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Re: Single Umbilical Artery? (Long)

  • dmahanWed170597dmahanWed170597 member
    My last pregnancy was a trisomy 18 and we had many problems besides an umbilicle cord problem. Today we had our scan and LO has a mass in his chest. Because of our prior issue they explained everything to us so we knew what was happening and the difference this time (basically nothkng to worry about yet). I think if there were other problems the dr would have definitely gone over things with you.
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  • GolfWidow001GolfWidow001 member
    dmahanWed170597 said:

    My last pregnancy was a trisomy 18 and we had many problems besides an umbilicle cord problem. Today we had our scan and LO has a mass in his chest. Because of our prior issue they explained everything to us so we knew what was happening and the difference this time (basically nothkng to worry about yet). I think if there were other problems the dr would have definitely gone over things with you.


    I'll be thinking about you and your baby. Hope everything goes ok. Did you find out if you have a boy or girl?
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  • dmahanWed170597dmahanWed170597 member
    Thanks melissaann230. We found out a few weeks ago it was a boy when we had our harmony results (which were normal). We are very optimistic it was shrink or stay the same size which is only 2 cm
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  • TonyaCody06TonyaCody06 member
    My DD#3 had a single umbilical artery (SUA) aka: 2 vessel cord (versus the normal 3)

    We didn't do an amnio or anything and she had no other markers for any issues. We had extra sonograms to monitor growth, kidneys and heart.

    She was our biggest baby and is definitely our "fire cracker"!

    She does now have vesicouretal reflux (VUR) where her bladder refluxes urine up to the kidney. This could be related to cord or may not me. She gets daily antibiotics to prevent kidney infections and yearly kidney testing (which she had this morning in fact). She should eventually outgrow it.

    Stop googling it! You will scare yourself!
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  • MrsCase1MrsCase1 member
    I didn't personally but I feel like combined with my IRL friends and TB friends, I have heard of this before and all was well.
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  • CherSomethingCherSomething member
    I know someone who had a healthy baby boy with one umbilical artery, also. Try not to worry! 
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  • austinlynsaustinlyns member
    edited January 2014
    Multiple post
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  • austinlynsaustinlyns member
    edited January 2014
    Multiple post
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  • austinlynsaustinlyns member
    edited January 2014
    I have 3 friends/family members who have had the single artery cord. None of their babies had any issues. One baby was on the small side even though both parents are tall, but they don't know for sure if that was due to the cord issue. If you are worried about a trisomy, I would request a blood test to check for it (materniti21 or another similar test).

    Eta: sorry, my phone was acting crazy last night and wouldn't let me finish my post. Sorry about the multiple posts!
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  • GolfWidow001GolfWidow001 member
    Thank you for your posts. That definitely offers reassurance. I knew I shouldn't have looked at google and that most likely everything will turn out ok. It's just nice to hear it from others as well as another form of reassurance. Thanks again :)
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  • dmizakdmizak member
    edited January 2014
    My nephew was born with a single umbilical artery. He also had only one kidney and a tracheal esophageal fistula. (Hole in the connection between the esophagus and the trachea.) Though he had to have surgery to close the hole when he was born, and multiple procedures to stretch the scar tissue so he could swallow, and a surgery to remove a benign tumor at the base of his spine, he's perfectly fine! He's doing great, a little skinny, but starting to put on the weight. I do believe they usually find more than one problem on the ultrasound, so if they didn't see anything else of concern, it should be fine! It's a more common issue than you think. And more often than not, it doesn't mean much.
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  • MrsLabRatMrsLabRat member
    My sister had this during my niece's pregnancy. The Dr reminded her that tons of women in the previous generations had this and never knew because the ultrasounds we get are so sensitive that they pick up all the slightest things. My niece was born perfectly healthy :)
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  • MrsLabRatMrsLabRat member
    I wanted to add that the Dr did order monthly ultrasounds after my sister's diagnosis to monitor the baby's heart and kidneys
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  • Lynnja616Lynnja616 member
    DD had a two vessel cord.  My OB was not concerned (even though I also googled- bad idea) and DD was born healthy and without issue. 

     

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