I recently renewed contact with a girl ? I haven’t seen since 1968, courtesy of the Interweb.
Yesterday she told me of a medical crisis. Her daughter is 22 weeks pregnant with her second child and had a visit to the Obstretician two days ago.
She was told that her amniotic fluid was dissapearing and was offered an immediate termination or the option of waiting two weeks to see if the fluid returned. If it doesn’t it is inevitable that the termination go ahead as the baby’s chances are nil, according to the obstretician.
Has anyone any knowledge or experience of this. Is there any hope worth holding out for. My own eldest daughter’s first child had gastroschesis, which can be caused by a lack of fluid, or too much fluid and her prognosis was pretty bleak, but her son survived, after a hell of a lot of surgery, and is fine now.
I guess it depends how little amniotic fluid is there. Try doing an Internet search for “oligohydraminos”.
One worry is the baby’s kidneys. The fetus “swallows” amniotic fluid and pees it out. If it can’t pee it out, there may be a serious problem. An ultrasound can show if there is less than 500 mL of fluid, hence that diagnosis.
The other concern is the baby’s lungs. The baby doesn’t just swallow amniotic fluid, it actually breathes it, and doing so is important for proper lung development. If there isn’t enough fluid, the lungs don’t mature properly and the child will die shortly after birth.
Thanks, I have spent a couple of days on this and it is not looking good. I had noped someone might have an encouraging experience but it looks as though there are non.