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Antenatal Screening

People's stories

Continuing with an affected pregnancy

Interview AN44

Interview AN44

Background: Child's age at Interview: 3.5 years. Age at diagnosis: during pregnancy (24 weeks). Parents marital status: married. Occupation: Mother-Doctor, Father-Doctor. Other children: One older child. The family live close by to a specialist hospital.

Brief outline:Their daughter was diagnosed with ostium primum Atrial Septal Defect (ASD). Treatment: Surgery at 18 months old to close the hole with a dacron patch. Stitches in the mitral valve. No further surgery planned. Current medication: none. More of this interview can be seen on the DIPEX Congenital Heart Disease site as interview CHD12.

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If her daughter's heart condition had not been found through antenatal screening, it might not have been detected until adulthood.
Print I can see the anxieties that it brings on in your pregnancy and I had a lot of anxiety probably that I wouldn't have otherwise had. But knowing as I do how sometimes cases like hers could be missed otherwise and she wouldn't necessarily have been picked up at the post-natal check because she may not have - in fact she did have a slight murmur, but I wonder how much of that would have been picked up if we weren't really listening for it. That might have been missed. And, you know, if so, she might not have, she would have just been labelled small and petite or whatever….and she may not have ever otherwise been picked up until she had problems from the defect. You know, in adolescence or in her 20s when it would have been too late to do anything. And that just terrifies me, that thought. So I am really, really - I would rather have had a few months of anxiety than the possibility that, you know, her case would have been missed until it was too late.

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