Accuracy of ultrasound for cleft palate or cleft lip?

[CookAMH]

Does anyone know how accurate the initial basic fetal scan is in diagnosing a cleft? A friend had this happen this week and has a level 2 u/s next week. I am curious if this is something with few false positives or if it can be quite likely that they'll find a true cleft next week.

[Hannahkatiebell]

At our 20 week ultrasound, our baby boy was diagnosed with a cleft lip with possible palate. You cannot know about the palate for sure until birth. Unfortunately, I think that there are few false positives. They saw something and there probably is something there. Our son has had three major surgeries to correct the clefts, but you know what? He is the most awesome kid! Everyone loves him to pieces and I think he is so brave!

Please send me a private message if your friend would like to talk to me further about this. I really have so much practical information to share about this. Please let her know that I would love to talk with her when she is ready; it's hard to feel alone in this.

I remember feeling incredibly shocked. I honestly didn't know that babies were born in the US with clefts! I had only seen them on TV in third world countries.

I'll be thinking of her.

[SGVaughn]

this is one of those times that ultrasound is very accurate...if I could find them I could show you the ultrasounds of my daughters where you can actually clearly see the cupids bow on their lips...none of them have clefts but my point is, ultrasound is very clear for this

the upside is...this is not an end the world diagnoses...its surgery sure, but the end result from surgery is nothing short of amazing

I know of two cleft palate and lip babies that are mostly all grown up and you cant even tell anything has ever been done

I wish her and her baby luck with having to deal with an extra thing but at least they have a heads up now so they can get an idea of what to expect

[lillymonster]

They found a cleft palate on my friends baby during an ultrasound. He had to get a few operations right after birth. I think they are pretty accurate in this case. He is a preschooler know and everything is in the past. You can't even see anything.