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texasmom - i read about your minor wreck on christmas morning. PLEASE be careful. I know this can make us feel out of control sometimes, but we have to get a grip for our child's sake. I still have a ways to go before I practice what I preach but it is becoming a little easier. Hopefully my u/s on Jan 9 will make me feel even better.

Thanks for the kind words Steffie. It's been a little over 3 weeks since we found out (about the EIF) and I'd like to think I'm finally turning the corner and getting some perspective. As others have said, in the overwhelming amount of cases, there's a 98% or better chance that everything will be OK. If I had gotten a 98% or 99% on a test in college, I would have done backflips :) My thoughts are with all who will be giving birth in the next few months.

I am due to be induced on February 6th. I spoke with my pediatrican yesterday who will be this baby's doctor about the EIF. I wanted to give him a heads up in case the baby needed any additional testing. His exact words were "no need to worry, this is very common to see" He also said that as long as the babys breathing/oxygen and heart exam were normal when he examined him then no further heart evaluations would be needed. That made me feel much better. I had the amnio done so I don't worry anymore about down syndrome but more about something being wrong with the heart. Anyways, I thought I would pa__s along. Gretchen

To texasmom...Thanks for sharing your story. It's rea__suring and I, too, am feeling better these past few days. It's been almost 2 weeks since our ultrasound and I've had a couple really bad days since (to the point of seriously considering the amnio), but much better the past few days. Glad that you are okay...be careful! My husband was on his way to work post ultrasound and slid into a parked car as he was distracted and the weather was bad. So, I know how you feel! To answer your question about the odds, the 1/600 was based on my blood test (the ultrascreen). So the way the gen. couns. explained it was that I'm kind of back where I started with the 1/300, which should be the odds for my age (33). This is long, but I'm going to pa__s along this note from the GC who was trying to explain in more detail: 'The bottom line is that we are trying to put all of the information together, from both the ultrasound and first trimester screening, and that is sometimes VERY difficult. As you have found in your search of the literature, the first trimester screening is more accurate at finding pregnancies that are at a high risk for Down syndrome than the 20-week scan. However, it is still a screening test, so some babies (~10%) will not be considered "increased risk" from that testing that do, in fact, have Down syndrome. Hence, we still do a genetic screening for DS with the ultrasound. The down-side to that ultrasound is that we find markers in many, many healthy pregnancies. In many cases, if two markers are found, we would increase the risk much more than the ~2 fold that we used in your case. The reason why we used 2-fold in your case is because some research indicates that choroid plexus cysts are a__sociated with Down syndrome, but other research has not shown that babies with Down syndrome are more likely to have choroid plexus cysts. If we had found two markers that have compelling data that suggests they are a__sociated with Down syndrome, then we would use a much higher risk estimate. Unfortunately, even with all the advances in ultrasound and research on these markers, this remains an area that is not clear-cut. Overall, as we talked about over the phone, this is a very difficult situation, because it is most likely that we are raising your anxiety levels and your pregnancy does not have Down syndrome. We try to then provide you with as much information as we can, since some people may choose to do additional testing while others don't. Also, these risk numbers look different depending on your perspective. As you rightly pointed out, your final risk estimate, based on first trimester screening and ultrasound, is comparable to your initial risk based on age alone, which is still a 99.7% chance that the pregnancy does not have Down syndrome.' I hope that helps... I was so skeptical of the numbers but now I'm trying not to dwell as we have no control. Keep me posted as to how you're doing and your next meeting with the perinatologist. Take care.

Jen, Thanks so much for taking the time to rekey that! Definitely a comfort. BTW, before I banned myself from medical sites on the internet, and before I found out about the CPC, I looked at a lot of stuff on various soft markers. Most studies don’t correlate CPC with Down’s anymore…there was a specific study, can’t remember where I read it where they looked at women with both a CPC and an EIF and there was no increase in their predication rate for chromosomal abnormalities. For women with just the EIF the odds were also very encouraging for no chromosomal abnormalities. Also, in the last year I’ve had two girlfriends whose children had CPCs…one chose amnio and one did not. Both children were born without any extra chromosomes. I’ll touch base after my next ultrasound in later January…I am looking forward to seeing my little one again but am also nervous. I just don’t want them to find anything else…I’ve just now gotten a handle on the CPC and the EIF!

jen - thank you for posting that info from the doc texasmom - I know how you feel. I have an ultrasound on Friday and hoping that the ECF has resolved itself or if it has not that all my other measurements are still looking great. A friend of mine had a CPC at 18 wks and just went in for a level 2 followup at 26 wks and the CPC has resolved itself and no other markers were found. I feel in my heart we will all be blessed with healthy babies in 2009.

This site has been such a great help to me. I had the US and blood work at 16 weeks. I was told by my dr. on the day before Christmas eve that the baby had a dark spot on the heart. She told me that it is a marker for DS but that my blood work didnt point to any increased risk of DS and everything else looked normal. Needless to say Christmas was not very happy. I was so depressed it was hard to get out of bed. I felt so bad for my 3 year old son because here I am home for vacation for 2 weeks and instead of being fun mommy I am depressed mommy. We spent 3 days after Christmas at my inlaws and it was hard to keep a happy face. Any questions about the baby made me feel horrible. I answered as quickley as possible and changed the subject. My husband didnt want to tell them and worry them with this. I feel so guilty because when I was pregnant with my son I was so happy. Now I dont want to think about the baby at all. I wish I hadnt gone for this stupid test. Back in 2005 when my son was aborn they didnt even offer this test to me. I was only 30 then and I will be 35 this month so I am wondering if my age has anything to do with it. My Dr. sugested doing the amnio but the risks seem too high. I know someone who had the amnio which caused an infection and that caused her to loose the baby. I just dont like the sound of it. I am so happy to hear so many babies were born healthy. Reading this site is the only thing that is getting me through this. I am going back on Sat. for my 20 week sonogram and I hope that they no longer see the dark spot. I can feel her kicking right now shich makes me feel like she is going to be fine. It is out of my hands now so I guess I just pray and try to keep my head up.

Hello Everyone, I want to start by saying this site was such a comfort for me throughout my pregnancy and i thank everyone for their postings. Like the rest of you my routine ultrasound showed an ecogenic foci on my babies heart and I was told it could be a marker for downs. My doctor told me not to stress out about it because i was 27 and she did not see it as anything to be alarmed about. However that is much easier said than done, I thought about it everyday and put all my trust and faith in God, i prayed to him everyday that i would give birth to a healthy baby. I am very blessed to say that I gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby girl, and I thank God everyday. No matter how hard it is, try to enjoy your pregnancy and put your faith in God. I hope you all have healthy babies as i did, and I hope my story helps some of you out there. I felt i had to post my story because this page really did help comfort me. The best of luck to all of you!!!

Sam, Congratulations! I am so happy that you posted your good news. It gives me so much hope when I hear that people were told the same thing as me and that everything turned out fine. I am going for my 20 week sonogram tomorrow and I hope to hear that her size is normal that will make me feel a lot better. I have heard that DS babies are usually small and that their femur is shorter than normal. I am praying for the best for all of us.

Steffie – hope your ultrasound went well. Thinking about you. Lipstick799 – Finding out about a marker, especially when you’re not even thinking about anything being wrong, definitely throws you for a loop. The worry does get better. It took me about 3 weeks to get a grip. I’m hoping to hold on to it :) The odds really are in your favor. Be well!

lipstick - I totally understand how you felt at Christmas. That was about 2 weeks after I found out about the focus and I was very depressed as well. I did not enjoy this Christmas and it was hard to keep a fake smile on my face. But... what I can tell you is that is does get better. I definitely have a more positive outlook on it and have gotten a grip on my feelings (for the most part). Of course I think about it everyday. It is always in the back of my mind, but I feel like I am coming around and starting to be able to talk about the pregnancy again without feeling horrible. Sam - thank you for posting another success story. It definitely give hope to those of us that are still waiting to delivery. Congrats on your healthy baby!! Texasmom - thanks for thinking of me. Everything is still measuring great. There are still no other soft markers. The echogenic focus is still there, but the doc said that he doesn't usually see them go away. The fact that it is still there is no indication of changing the health of the baby. They also said that of all the "markers" (cysts on the brain, echogenic bowel, short femurs) an echogenic focus is of their least concern. Again they told me I should not be worrying about it. It is still very hard not to though. So I guess I can report that everything is looking well. The baby is actually a week ahead now and is 1 lb 14 oz. Also my fibroid has not grown since the last u/s so that is also good. Thank you for all your prayers before this u/s and if you don't mind I'm still asking for them until I deliver a healthy baby. Thanks girls!!!

Texasmom and Steffi92s - thank you so much for the words of encouragement! My next sonogram is at 9am tomorrow. My brain has been mush all day just thinking about it. I just want to get there so that I can ask about other markers that hopefully wont be present. I will fill you in tomorrow on the results. I will be praying all night!

lipstick - you and your little one will be in my prayers tonight. Everything will be fine for you, don't worry. Please let us know how your appt goes tomorrow.

lipstick - two more things. We also have not told our families. I don't t think I could bear the questions and the constant worrying that telling them would bring. I have told my sister and 2 good friends. Each of them had their own sets of issues with their u/s so they have been providing me some comfort. I agree with you that the amnio is too risky. The odds are in your favor. My doctor did not think that an amnio was appropriate for the finding of the focus especially since everything else is measuring well. Of course it is a personal decision, but I think we just have to put our faith in God or whoever you worship and trust that everything will be fine.

I am happy to say that I am feeling much better after todays sonogram. I had the same tech as the last US so I was happy that she would know exactley what I was talking about. She was wonderful. She told me that no one really is sure what it is. She said that sometimes Dr.'s say it is just a muscle in the heart others say it is a reflection and still others call it a calcium deposit. She said that it is so common that they dont even alert the specialist for it. She said their are other markers that are much more prominent in DS babies. She took the time to show me the spot they were talking about on the heart and I couldnt believe how she could even see the tiny bright spot. She really went throught measuring the bones and geting a gage on the weight since I told her that I would feel better if all the measurments seemed normal. I am happy to say that she is 13 oz. and all her measurments were normal. The tech really wanted me to feel better and I was with her for a long time. She showed me the babies face and explained that many DS babies do not have a real nose bone on the sono and also the chin bone is usually receded. She showed me the spine and the brain and how they all connected properley and that her spine was hugging her skin which usually is another marker for genetic disorder. She even showed me the babies face in 3D! It was so very cool. I had never seen one of those on my son. She said that they dont do it for everyone but she wanted me to see my babies face. Her nose looks just like my sons and she has my big lips! She gave me 3 pictures of the babies face in 3D to take home along with the picture of the entire baby and a really good one of the spine and brain. I was so emotional when I left there. I was crying because I was so happy about the entire sonogram. I really feel that everything is going to be ok. She was kicking me during the sonogram and I could see her on the screen as I felt it. She kept kicking me the entire ride home. I felt like she was saying now couldnt you kick yourself for being so worried. I want to get a little refrigerator magnet frame to put her little face on my fridge. I am back to wanting to pick out bedding for her room and I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off of my shoulders. I think you for your thoughts and prayers. I am going to continue to pray for all of us. We should be enjoying our pregnancies not being depressed about them. Please let me know what happens with both of you. I promise to keep you posted.

lipstick - I am soo happy for you that you have a great sense of relief after your u/s. That was great that the tech really took the time to make you feel better and even give you 3D pics! I am glad you feel like you are able to be happy about your pregnancy again:) I promise you will see me on her for the next fews months. I'm due April 26. I may go earlier since the baby is measuring a week ahead. When are you due?