Two-Vessel Cord (Single Umbilical Artery) - anyone have this also??

This is a little long because I included a description of what is going on from TheBump and WebMD since it is not that common... Here's the deal: I had my mid-pregnancy scan or "20 week" a few weeks back and the doctor wanted to review everything and meet with me today (I'm now 24 weeks). So, I did. I figured this would be routine like all the others so I didn't bother having DH come or my mom. Oops.

The doctor told me that I have a Two-Vessel Cord (Single Umbilical Artery). I'm just looking to see if anyone else here has this and how they are doing with it. My doctor said that, for me, I'm (so far) developing perfectly - that everything is absolutely perfect but that they want to watch me closely because they discovered this on the 20-week scan.

He said this is something that occurs in 1-1.5% of pregnancies and it means they have to monitor me more often, have more sonograms, and stuff like that. I may need to see a specialist that will look at the heart and kidneys.

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Description: During the anatomy ultrasound, one of the things the sonographer looks for is the presence of three vessels within the umbilical cord: one vein (which carries oxygen and nutrients from you to the baby) and two arteries (which shuttle that waste back to you, to be processed and disposed of by your kidneys). Instead of those three vessels, your baby's cord has only two: one vein and one artery. Two-vessel cord — also known as single umbilical artery (SUA) — occurs in 1 percent of singleton pregnancies and 5 percent of twin and multiple pregnancies. Researchers don't quite know what causes SUA, though they theorize that the second artery disappears at some point during early pregnancy.

Although one artery can certainly perform the job of two and sustain a perfectly healthy pregnancy, your practitioner will likely keep a particularly close eye on your baby's development, and may want to run further tests, including more scans (more pictures — yay!) and possibly even a chromosomal analysis to rule out any genetic abnormalities or other congenital problems. The chances are quite good, however, that your baby will be just fine. So all you need to do from here on out, Mom, is continue taking good care of yourself and enjoy your pregnancy (keeping it as worry-free as possible).

The possible issues they monitor for:

How will my two-vessel umbilical cord affect my baby?

In most cases, it won’t: The one artery just makes up for what the missing one would do. However, there’s a slight increase in risk of growth problems and a minimal increase in risk of stillbirth.

You should also be aware that baby’s kidneys and heart develop at the same time as the umbilical cord does, so there’s also a slight increase in risk of abnormalities to those organs. Your doctor will look closely at the kidneys and heart and may have a specialist give baby an echocardiogram in the late second trimester to be sure everything’s okay.

There used to be a belief that a two-vessel cord signaled an increased risk of chromosomal abnormalities like Down syndrome, but that’s actually not true -- those would be more likely to be signaled by other symptoms, and your doc would look at other factors to diagnose something like that. Most of the time, baby’s perfectly healthy.

What’s the best way to treat a two-vessel umbilical cord?

You won’t need to treat it, but the doc will monitor baby’s organs and growth closely to make sure everything’s okay -- and to be sure there’s adequate blood flow to baby’s heart and brain

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When they start saying things like they need to make sure the heart, kidneys, and brain is alright is when I get upset -- I try to focus on "most of the time, everything's fine" but it's the whole "enough blood flow to the brain" that freaks me the FUCKK out, pardon my language.

My doctor said that in almost forty years of doing this he has NEVER - and he used the word NEVER - had a patient with this condition have any real issue. Just a matter of extra monitoring.

Please tell me that someone here has this and that everything is fine... and better yet... I'm heading over to parenting to ask if anyone has HAD their child and they are totally fine.

Re: Two-Vessel Cord (Single Umbilical Artery) - anyone have this also??

I have heard of this, but do not have any experience.

It's so hard to hear when something is or may be "wrong" with DC- all you can do is focus on the positives and STAY OFF GOOGLE!! I swear, even if 99.9% of babies are born perfectly fine- google will post that 1 baby's story at the top.

I'm sure everything will be totally fine- especially since your doctor is on top of it!

Re: Two-Vessel Cord (Single Umbilical Artery) - anyone have this also??

Posted by kahlua716

I have heard of this, but do not have any experience.

It's so hard to hear when something is or may be "wrong" with DC- all you can do is focus on the positives and STAY OFF GOOGLE!! I swear, even if 99.9% of babies are born perfectly fine- google will post that 1 baby's story at the top.

I'm sure everything will be totally fine- especially since your doctor is on top of it!

Two-Vessel Cord (Single Umbilical Artery) - anyone have this also??

A good friend of mine just had this. Her son is 100% healthy and is now 7 months old. She was monitored a little closer and had a few extra ultra sounds. They were checking to make sure the baby was growing properly. Her DR said almost the same as your DR.

Re: Two-Vessel Cord (Single Umbilical Artery) - anyone have this also??

I had this with DD, who is now a perfectly healthy, albeit it slightly tiny, almost 6mo old.

First - STOP GOOGLING!

When we first found out about this, it scared the sh!t out of us. I also had a slightly elevated risk for downs from my NT Scan, so the rest of my pregnancy really sucked, to put it mildly. It was highly advised that I get an amnio (I declined. Multiple times.) I had to go see a high risk OB for a 2nd opinion level 2 and a fetal echo-cardiogram. The high risk OB then noticed a "problem" with the bladder (which turned out to be absolutely nothing) and recommended I switch my care to them, instead of my regular OB (I declined, they were much more alarmist than my regular OB.)

My OB was really great about the whole thing, she too, kept telling us we really had nothing to worry about and that she has never seen this amount to anything. I had to have growth sonos every 2 weeks towards the end of my pregnancy to make sure DD was growing at a normal rate, which she was, and that was about it. DD was born at 39 wks exactly and was absolutely perfect (and still is, in my opinion).

I know it's hard, but try as best you can not to worry. I feel slightly hypocritical saying that because I worried my entire pregnancy (the "what if" was always in the back of my mind), but, things really were absolutely and perfectly fine.

If you have any other questions, drop me an FM, I'd be more than happy to try and answer any questions you have. Good luck, I'm sure everything will be FINE!

Re: Two-Vessel Cord (Single Umbilical Artery) - anyone have this also??

When I was pregnant with DD #3, she had a 2 vessel cord and also an echogenic bowel. I was monitored closely for the remainder of my pregnancy and also sent for a fetal echo cardiogram. They were concerned that she would be on the small side when she was born, but she was born a healthy 8lbs 1oz (the biggest of all 3 of my DD's)

Good Luck!

Two-Vessel Cord (Single Umbilical Artery) - anyone have this also??

DD had this, she was labeled as "restricted growth" and they sent me for some extra sonograms for her heart (which was perfect). The entire time they told me about my "small" baby and I was measuring one week behind. Well, my small baby, was born one week late, at SEVEN POUNDS! DH and I are both short, and I am petite. . .IDK what kind of big baby they were expecting.

So, she was perfect, they are nuts, the end ;)

Re: Two-Vessel Cord (Single Umbilical Artery) - anyone have this also??

Yes, with my 2nd DS. We had several extra sonos and they monitored his weight very closely. I had to do all that I could to stop googling the situation.

He was born at 38 weeks...nice and healthy! He was 7lbs 2 oz.

Re: Two-Vessel Cord (Single Umbilical Artery) - anyone have this also??

When I was pregnant with my twins my DD had one. We didn't know about it until they were born at 30 weeks (not related at all to the cord issue!) When my OB mentioned it to me he said it wasn't an issue at all but just something not so common that he figured he would mention. Even being born so early, my DD has no issues now at 2.5 years old.

And stop googling!!

Re: Two-Vessel Cord (Single Umbilical Artery) - anyone have this also??

One of my twins (Travis ) had this and everything turned out to be fine!