Heart moms? Question...UPDATE post 13

[turnquia]

I have a question for any of the mom's with children with heart defects...

When they would listen with a doppler did you ever think wow it sounds odd?

I am pregnant with twins and baby girl (A) heart sounds very different from baby boy (B).

Since I first heard heart tones at 8 weeks I thought one sounded weird. Its not enough where anyone has seemed concerened enough to ask doc, but between midwife and nurses everyone else has commented on how different they sound. (think very harsh and almost clicky like a door slamming shut)

So I am obviously a little concerened about a heart defect and was curious if you had any idea before hand if there was something wrong or was it just a surprise?

OOh it probably doesn't help I"m a cardiac nurse...

[chrfath]

We didn't hear anything different with DD, she had a complete AV canal. Only her cardiologist has ever been able to hear her defects, even pre-surgery.

I am a very strong believer of second opinions if something is bugging you.

Sending wishes that all is well with your little ones heart.

[turnquia]

Originally Posted by chrfath

We didn't hear anything different with DD, she had a complete AV canal. Only her cardiologist has ever been able to hear her defects, even pre-surgery.

I am a very strong believer of second opinions if something is bugging you.

Sending wishes that all is well with your little ones heart.

Our anatomy scan is at the end of the month, we have already addressed this with the doc and they will be making sure they do really good heart check on her. My instincts with my pregnancies haven't been off yet, and I cannot seem to shake this one.

I just wasn't sure if anyone had any clue leading up to knowing about the defect or if it was a total surprise. I would rather have some clue than be blind sided...

[Jilian]

There were no sings of DS'2 heart defect at all and we had a level 2 u/s. He had TAPVR and since pulmonary veins are so itty bitty they missed it in the u/s. His heart sounded perfectly normal at every appointment and during the u/s although it did take the tech a loooong time to properly identify all 4 chambers. If you are really concerned ask for a fetal echo. I had to have one with dd (she was born a little over 2 yrs after DS2) and they checked the entire heart for a good 30 mins and ruled out CHD with 99% certainty. She is heart healthy

[hollytheteacher]

Not for us. My dr. did not even pick it up on the ultrasound...said the heart looked great. It wasn't discovered until ds was 1 day old. I'm not sure it would sound different in utero because the way the dr. described it to us in the first place was that ALL babies have a murmur when they are first born and then it goes away. Which is why the first day he was born, they said they heard it but was sure it was going to "switch over" ...but then it didn't...so they knew something was up.

[JessicaS]

They did not detect the heart defect during pregnancy. I had multiple lvl II ultrasounds with a peri because I had severe polyhydramnios. I had TTOOONNNSSS of fluid and they really looked and looked for what might be going wrong. I had over a dozen Lvl 2 u/s. My ds ended up having Noonan's Syndrome, which is what caused the excess fluid.

Ds has a very obvious murmur that anyone with a stethoscope can detect . His defect isn't really that serious at this moment but his murmur is really noticeable. It is more noticeable than it is serious anyways. He was born with two VSDs, pulmonary stenosis and pulmonary valvular stenosis.

You would have to have an echo to find out for sure.

[turnquia]

TY for replies! I am planning a homebirth and since super early in the pregnancy I've had a weird feeling about one baby. Then after hearing the heart sounds and how different they sound just made me feel nervous. But I know positions etc can change that.

So scary to know so many of your big heart defects weren't able to be detected at the ultrasound.

[shanniesue2]

another mom here with a DS who's defect wasn't detected before birth. Heck, his defect wasn't detected until he was 17 months old and we had switched peds (and he was missing 50% of his atrial septum--heart was already enlarged and was already beginning to show signs of pulmonary hypertension). No one has been able to give us any explanation as to why it wasn't detected earlier than it was.

[skyebones]

Get a 2nd opinion and go with your gut especially with a HB. Sophia's defect was pretty obvious and even I knew something was wrong... Sophia's heart looked like a 3 leaf clover. Sophia was dx with pulmonary atresia intact septum with multiple coronary fistulae at 18 weeks gestation.

Good luck with your home birth. I love the idea of home birth, but would definitely rule out a medical condition before hand. Sophia would have died at birth or shortly afterwards without protiglandin e and surgical intervention.

Laura

[FaithfulOne]

My ds had normal heart tones during prenatal doppler scans. His defects weren't noticed until 6 months.

[pimms]

I wouldn't have noticed if my son's heartbeat sounded weird through the doppler (first baby), and my OB never thought anything sounded odd. Honestly, I didn't even know you could heart a defect through doppler!

My son's defect (tetralogy of Fallot with a vascular ring) was caught on a level II (my six previous u/s's couldn't detect his stomach, so we knew something was going on, but it wasn't detailed enough to see the heart issues).

My 2nd child was born with mild pulmonary stenosis, but it wasn't detected as a murmur until she was 4mos old. It's a benign issue.

My 3rd child was just diagnosed with a benign murmur at age 3. I still can't believe all 3 kids have a murmur of some sort.

The PC said that as she (#3) gets older they won't detect her murmur anymore, that's b/c the artery walls naturally thicken and you just won't hear it, it's not that it goes away.

And we also talked about how all babies are born with a murmur, as you probably know the valve has to close and that doesn't happen until babies are 1,2,3 days old.

Let us know the outcome of the u/s and if you are really concerned, I would get the fetal echo, there is no down side. I did for all 3 pregnancies just based on my son's history.

[muldey]

Ds's Tetralogy of Fallot wasn't discovered until 1 day old.He was born at home and thankfully had no symptoms other than the murmur,which the first nurse and dr never even heard.It was the 2nd dr who noticed.He had the repair at 10 weeks old and never had a symptom other than the murmur.

[turnquia]

I wanted to post a quick update.

We had our 20 week anatomy scan and thankfully had a wonderful OB who came in and really looked over everything.

My intuition was somewhat on track... but so far everything looks good. (BIG relief).

Baby girl has a pretty large soft marker right on her mitral valve/ventrical. All 4 chambers doesn't appear to be any septal defects and the valve even seemed to be functioning just fine. I have a mitral valve prolapse and it can be genetic so they will keep an eye on it. So in 4 weeks they are going to recheck the marker (she had no other soft markers btw). Her heart sounded more normal to me during the ultrasound which was nice too. OB said maybe she just had a floppy valve early on and its working itself out... but either way he spent a long time looking at her to make sure esp. since the marker did show up and it seems all is well

Crazy how intuition works sometimes but I'm so glad it so far seems to be nothing

[by-the-lake]

Glad to hear it

[chrfath]

Good news. My DD ended up with moderate mitral valve leakage even after two surgeries and it doesn't slow her down a bit. I hope things turn out just perfect for your little gal.