in

England

Nuchal fold reading positive story ✨

I just wanted to post my experience and story for anyone else going through this in pregnancy.

I was excited to head to my 12 week scan for my second child. In the scan the sonographer was really lingering on the nuchal reading (fluid at the back of babies neck). Me being a control freak knew that this reading could pick up on downsyndrome, edwards and pataus so panic hit me and I asked what was wrong.
She explained our reading was above the “normal” reading of 3.5mm (being the largest normal reading). Ours was measuring 4mm so only 0.5mm over the UK norm.

We were taken to a room and discussed further testing etc and offered the blood test for more detailed results. After leaving the hospital I burst into tears and my world crashed down as I thought the baby inside me wouldn’t ever come to light and 12 weeks of growing them is such a long time when it’s you and them inside.

I was impatient because I wanted answers asap and waiting 3-5 days for the bloods that weren’t the most detailed wasn’t good enough. So luckily we paid for a private scan in London £600 for peace of mind was a small price to pay.
They conducted a detailed scan measuring any abnormalities or things picked up that would indicate any syndromes. The sonographer confirmed the nose bone looked well and didn’t indicate downsyndrome and so on. We gave bloods for a NIPT which is more detailed and accurate at pointing out any chances of disabilities or abnormalities.

A painstaking few days later the hospital called and my blood chances all came back low even though the nuchal reading on the scan was above average which was slightly reassuring. The NIPT test came back the day after this all low chances also. I could breathe a little.

I searched forums every day for positive outcomes to hold onto and reassure myself and read that a virus can make that part of the foetus large as it fights off the virus that you also had. (The week before I was very poorly with a virus so this answered why it could’ve happened.). It also explained that larger babies can have larger readings and my previous baby was 11lbs.

We had heart scans in guy and st Thomas in London for the structure checking for no holes or abnormalities and they also all came back well. Thank god.

My baby boy Zakariyya was born perfectly healthy and well in May and is completely fine. I told myself when I used to scroll for hours on forums reading positive outcomes that I would always post mine for others feeling the same way. This is just a screening and isn’t solid evidence of anything wrong so just do the tests offered and remain positive. 💕