If that’s true then why did I have twins? I had an ultrasound at 12 weeks was told “Here’s your baby. There’s only one. Congrats see you in a month.” At my 22 week ultrasound to rule out a congenital heart defect, was told by the tech that there were two babies!

*ahem* One of my friends had an ultrasound which supposedly showed signs of two different chromosomal abnormalities in her daughter; one was Down Syndrome and the other was much worse. Basically, she was told that her baby would probably either be stillborn or have a very painful and short life after birth. Said daughter was born a few months later with no abnormalities to speak of, perfectly healthy. It is *absolutely* in those parents’ interest to seek a second opinion.

Really? Rarely wrong? Can you show me the statistics then?

Then where’s my penis?!

Ultrasounds are VERY good at finding certain kinds of birth defects and less good at detecting other things. Soft tissue: not so good. Bone problems? Very, very good. My daughter had anencephaly and it was perfectly obvious that the skull hadn’t formed.

But I do know women who’ve been told their babies had lymph node issues when they were only 12 weeks along or thereabouts (one woman my have been even earlier, at 8 weeks?) and they put her through needless worry until the 18 week scan, when surprise!, the baby was fine. But then they said, “The baby may have Down syndrome.” THe mom said, “no more scanning.” She couldn’t take it anymore because the doctors kept pressuring her to terminate whenever they found something different.

The baby was born perfectly healthy, btw.

My point only is: for something like an amniotic band that resulted in a congenital amputation of the arm, or anencephaly, or spina bifida, the ultrasound is rarely wrong. But for other issues that deal primarily with soft tissue, it’s got a worse track record. And the parents should always get a second opinion when doctors suspect problems.

It doesn’t hurt you guys to give them another scan. In fact, it makes a little more money for you guys. Stop arguing and start the darn scan.

OP- hope everything was fine and that they were wrong.

Yeah. Some jackass of a specialist told me that my baby was going to have downs syndrome. He refused to answer any and all of my questions, nearly shoved me off the bed numerous times in his attempt to get a better scan (didn’t ask me to move, warn me, no…just shoved until I had to grab onto the bed to keep from falling on the floor) and refused to call Luke anything but “it” or “the fetus” though we were constantly and pointedly using his name. Found out from the following scan that he had ONLY the the smallest degree of the least frightening of many flags for Downs, and none of the others, which almost always means a big fat NOTHING and is simply a manifestation of the truth that our body parts don’t always grow at exactly the same rates. The doc at the second scan confirmed this, told me he wasn’t at all worried, and that this sort of thing, if it didn’t spontaneously resolve as he expected, could be fixed with a small surgical procedure after he was born.

He was perfect at birth. (Still is, we think!)

Just this week I read about a mom whose 10 week ultrasound showed no heartbeat. She waited 2 weeks and went in for a D&C because she didn’t miscarry. She insisted on another u/s before the D&C, and the new u/s showed a healthy, happy baby with a heartbeat. Yeah, those things are always right…

…not to mention my daughter that was 10 lbs at 41 weeks (born 3 days later 8lb10oz) and her 9lb brother (7lb even at 38 weeks).

Multiple scans showing my daughter “worsening” kidney problems predicted to require surgery as a newborn proved to all be wrong. She was born with perfectly normal functioning kidneys. Imagine that ultrasound can be wrong Hmmmmm.