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thanks for your positive feedback "firstime". I appreciate it. I'm feelign a lot better this week as have been doing some reading up on echogenic white markers. How exciting for you not long now before your little one joins the world. LOL

Hi- yesterday I had my 18 week ultrasound and was told there was an echogenic focus on the baby's heart. I was confused and stunned. They sent us right away to a genetic counselor. My original 11 week screening (ultrasound and bloodwork) came back negative with a 1/310 of DS. For my age (36) that was considered a good result. After this, the genetic counselor said my risk was 1/65. It scared me to death and now i am struggling with weather or not to do the amnio. We wouldn't change anything, I think I would just like to know. Has anyone else had those odds and everything was fine? I am really struggling with if I should do the amnio. Any info is appreciated :)

I am 28 weeks now and at 22 my 18 week ultrasound showed the EIF on my baby girls heart. I didnt even fin out until my OB told me at my 22 week appt! She said the spot didnt worry her at all, she just ordered another scan to make sure the heart was functioning perfectly, which it was. She said its 100% normal when babys have this with a normal AFP result. Mine was 1 in 4800 for DS and 1 in 10000 for T18. The radiologist also told us that there is a list of 20 other things they look for and our baby had none. He said he has NEVER seen a baby born with a chromosome abnormality with just the EIF. My OB said thesame, that it wa__so insignificant, she shouldnt have even told me if she knew I would be so upset. I wish she hadnt! I also went to thechief perinatologist who told us that he has to deal eith this 10x a day, and that a perinatologist should perform all ultrasounds so this problem of women being misinformed and worried for no reason could be eliminated. He said he guaranteed our baby is fine. I was so relieved for a couple weeks and now I'm starting to worry again! I cant help it I just wantto know for sure. It really helps me to read postings of those who had the EIF and gave birth to healthy babies. I pray every day that I will be able to post on of those stories, and I promise I will!

I guess I am one of the few on here who chose to have the amnio. I am 27; my risk after my AFP test and before my US was 1:600. They found the echogenic foci on my baby's heart too which made my risk 1:198. My doctor's weren't as comforting as everyone else's it sounds like. They really scared us; they presented the amnio to us like it was almost necessary. We went the next day for the amnio which was last Thursday. It is now Monday morning and I have not stopped thinking about this. I am so glad I found this website...everyone is so positive on here unlike some of the other threads. Thank you so much! I think I can keep my mind off this for a while waiting for the results. Thank you all!

Hi Heather, I understand how you are feeling. Before my 20 weeks scan my DS risk was 1:410 and then at my 20 week scan they found EIF on baby's heart - which then changed my DS risk to 1:205. We decided against the amnio as I was told this was a common finding on most scans. It doesn't mean that I don't think about it from time to time. After reading the postings on this site I am feeling a lot more rea__sured. Good luck with your amnio result, my fingers and toes are crossed for you that all is OK (and I'm sure it is). Look forward to your positive post next week. LOL

Thank you all sooooo much! I can't tell you how great it is to read all of your posts. I just recieved news two days ago from the RN that our baby has the echogenic focus on the heart, which was found on my 20 wk US (no other markers) Of course I also freaked like may of you and turned immediately to the internet, which ultimately made me freak even more. I am currently living in the states (NY) for another month while my husband finishes his graduate degree and then we head back to Canada where we are fully covered. Thank God! We haven't been covered here because when I found out I was pregnant, we only had four months to go before coming home. So we decided to suck it up, go for our monthly prenatals and if anything went wrong, I would return to Canada. Then this happened. I already had the first Us which cost $260 and the Doc suggested going for a level 2 after finding the echogenic focus. I know it will cost alot so am confused if I should return to Canada to have it or not. Seeing as I am from the west, it will also be an expensive journey. But it might be worth it , for the piece of mind. Like many of you, my doctor, said she is not worried about it at all and only suggests going for the level 2 Us to give me a piece of mind. Any suggestions. Oh by the way I am 30 yrs old at 21 weeks.

Thank God for this web-site!! My wife and I just found out at our 20 week U/S that our baby has a calcium deposit on the heart. The news was hard to handle as our doctor informed us that this was a marker for D/S. We have a another appointment this Wednesday with a specialist to look for further information. We are praying that everything will be ok. The stories on this site have been a god-send. We will continue to be positive as we go through this. We wish the best for everyone on this site!

...Update from my post on April 2nd... I got my results today. I am having a healthy baby boy! I am so excited, and I couldn't wait to share it with all of you. If I can rea__sure any of you the way some of the posts have on here for me, I will be thrilled. Thank you and good luck to all of you!

Thank you so much for posting. I have been checking every day hoping to hear your results. I have about 10 weeks to go before I find out about our little girl. Posts like yours make the wait so much easier and more hopeful. Thanks!!!

Congratulations Heather. I am so happy for you! I't so nice to hear all the positive stories. We just found out that without insurance, it will cost us close to $1000 to get the level 2 US here in NY, so have decided to wait until we return to Canada where we are fully covered in 6 weeks to have it done. At that point I will be 32 weeks. The wait is not going to be easy but I feel so much better after reading these posts. If I ever start stressing, I will just read them over again. I have another doctors appointment on Friday. Hopefully my doctor can be as positive.

We had another ultrasound today with a specialist. She said that calcium deposits are becoming more common because of the technological advances made with ultrasounds. She informed us that our baby doesn't have any other markers and therefore, should be fine. What a relief! We are still waiting on our blood work results, but are not as worried. The doctor said that having this as the only marker is nothing to be worried about, so we'll try not to worry! Everyone's babies are in my prayers.

This information about the Intracardiac Echogenic Focus (calcium deposit) was given to us today at our specialist appointment. It would have nice to have recieved this at out intial appointment when the news about the calcium deposit was given! WHAT COULD HAVING A CALCIUM DEPOSIT MEAN FOR MY BABY? In most developing babies, the presence of a calcium deposit will be nothing more than a normal variaition of anatomy. When a calcium deposit is present, and the rest of the examination of the heart is normal, the heart is expected to develop and function normally, both before and after birth. In a patient who is at low risk for having a baby with D/S and whose U/S is otherwise normal, the calcium deposit is not expected to increase the risk for D/S enough to warrant any further concern or testing!!! Hope this helps!

Thanks Raspberry. I agree. If they feel the need to tell us about it in the first place, then they should give us all the facts right away. My doctor was quick to say it wasn't anything that she thought we should worry about but of course I did when she made a special phone call to tell me about it. Anyway, I think our babies are going to be fine. I'm trying to keep myself from stressing about it because that can't be good for the baby either. This forum has been so helpful. thanks again!

Hello everyone. I am new here and like many of you I have been scouring the net all evening after hearing the news that there is an EIF present in my baby girls Left ventricle. My wife is 32 years old and I am 33. My wife will be 33 years old when our daughter is born this coming August. Like any couple who is "older" we understand that age increases ones risk factors. We did not opt for the triple test because termination is not even a consideration. So Tuesday we were n cloud nine and now we are in the bas____nt so to speak. There are no other abnormalities on Livy's ultrasound and all of her measurements are within normal limits. She was moving quite a lot and her hands seemed symetrical as did the rest of the features we could see. I guess it is upsetting that these "soft markers" are considered to be "valuable tools" to identify affected fetuses.

I never posted but I frequently read along on this forum throughout my pregnancy. The dr discovered an EIF on my daughter's heart at our 18 week ultrasound. I'm 31 and my bloodwork came back great so they told me not to worry at all but of course I did! I'm so happy to say that my daughter was born last weekend and she's perfectly healthy!

The midwife called me today to let me know that the perinatolgist they have in the there practice read the babies US and that he sees this 5-10 times a week. The baby has no other markers and no structural anomalies and everything looks good according to the perinatologist. The babies heart is strong and within limits as are all the other measurements they take. Her face and ears are where they should be and the measurements are within limits. Her head is normal and are her long bones. They said when they see a normally developing baby with this one soft marker they just call it a variant of normal because it pops up every week now. The midwife said this serves to worry parents more than anything else.