Quote:
Originally Posted by Melly24  I had an anatomy scan yesterday (21 weeks) and they found an area of cysts in the baby's right lung.
I have to have another scan with a specialist radiographer, but it could take a while. In the meantime, I just know I am going to go crazy with worry. I was a mess yesterday and have pretty much convinced myself that I can no longer have a homebirth 
He is otherwise perfect everywhere else. Beautiful really 
Anyone's babe had this or something like this? Please share your story. |
Good lord, we had an issue just like this, the stupid OBs scared the cr@p out of me. It was FINE. FINE. If I hadn't had an ultrasound I never would have known and I could have saved us all a lot of worry over nothing.
At our 20 week US they detected a cystic area in the lung. Called it CCAM (congenital cystic adenomatous malformation). Said it was extremely rare. No other abnormalities detected. They sent us to a fetal cardiologist for a heart scan, heart was fine. Pushed us to do an amnio which we declined because my independent research showed that, in the absence of other anatomical abnormalities, there is NO ASSOCIATION of CCAM with genetic anomalies. Had a big 'discussion' with the sonogram OB over that.
We made an appointment with a big center that sees a lot of these from all over the country. They were great, they were *way* less worried about it than the first guy. Said that these things are being detected more and more often because of the improvement in ultrasound technology. Basically recommended continued US monitoring to make sure it wasn't growing.
Apparently the danger is that the thing can grow so big it compresses the fetal heart. Danger is greatest between 22 and 28 weeks, after that it drops because the rate of growth of the lungs compared to the heart slows down. I got all the ultrasounds, the CCAM stayed small and the baby was fine all the way through.
I had a hospital birth (I would have anyway) and, on the advice of the specialist OB, requested that NICU staff be present in case there were any respiratory problems at birth. There weren't, the NICU people poked her a couple of times and then handed her over. Apgars 9 & 9.
I took baby back to the specialists when she was 4 months old. They basically recommended that she get the thing removed surgically before she was a year old, for fear of repeated pulmonary infections or cancer in the CCAM.
I went home and read everything I could about it (again) and it looks like they recommend this because they have seen some cases where kids get pulmonary infections or cancers in these malformations. But they know nothing about the rates at all. It's just some case reports. I decided I was not going to subject my healthy, completely asymptomatic child to an invasive surgery because of a case report.
Honestly I think these are way more common than was previously thought and we are just detecting them now at higher rates because of the higher-tech ultrasounds.
I know SO MUCH about this stupid topic now, I'm writing way too much here but please please PM me if you want to know more.
ETA:
1) I looked at your scan and I think your LO may have the macrocystic kind? Ours was microcystic, the literature suggests some prognostic differences but I'm not sure how reliable that is.
2) Regarding homebirth, I would talk to your midwife and see how she feels. If the cysts remain stable throughout the pregnancy I think there is not a big chance of respiratory complications at birth. If your midwife feels comfortable with stabilizing baby for transfer in such an event, maybe you could still go ahead with it. Personally I was more comfortable being in the hospital, though it didn't turn out to be a problem at all.
