testing in utero?

[lorine2004]

I was just wondering if any of you knew about your child's cranio BEFORE birth? If so, what testing did you have done that found it? Did you have a family history and do an amio and gentic testing, or was an ultrasound or other diagnostic imaging able to catch it?

I am just researching because there is about a 50/50 shot that our son, due it Oct, will have cranio based on husband's family history. there is a craniofacial syndrome, but a specific one has never been diagnosed. For some reason no one but me seems all that interested in finding out and being prepared... they all go by the "well, we'll see how he looks when he comes out" train of thought.

thanks in advance guys!

[jjmc123]

From my understanding it's not easy for them to rule out cranio in the womb. However. it can't hurt to have the drs take a closer look when they do ultrasounds. Since your husband has a family history of cranio, you may be able to spot some of the classic headshapes. As a fluke, at 28 weeks pregnant I got a 3D ultrasound. We could only see one side of my son's face, but looking back at those photos I can tell that he had cranio since it was his left side and he's left coronal. I'm glad I didnt know he had cranio until after he was born, but the ultrasound gives me peace of mind that even if I was induced earlier than 41.5 weeks and even though my son was a gigantic monster (12+ lbs) it would not have changed anything.

[marisajo]

Because of the history with Zack, they did Level 2 ultrasounds on my next two babies to try to get a closer look at the sutures in utero. We actually had a Level 2 with Zack due to his head measuring large at the regular 20-week u/s. They ended up ruling out hydrocephalus, but we didn't know to have them looking for craniosynostosis. Once he was diagnosed severe metopic, it made sense that how they draw the circles around the head on u/s could cause his head to seem larger than if it was truly round as is typically the case.

I would definitely explain the history and try to get a level 2 to see if anything shows up abnormally. Cranio babies can tend to get stuck trying to come out, so it may make you opt for a c-section sooner if it looks like coming out might be an issue. History of cranio and history of large babies is what made me opt for a c-section istead of VBAC for my third. My cranio kid was breech, thank goodness. There's no way his head would have made it out - his soft spot was gone by birth.

[rashleigh]

with my 3rd son the ultrasound tech noticed right away that he had an odd shaped head. within 3 weeks of birth his soft spot was completely sealed. Given that this was our 2nd child to have cranio when i got preg with the 4th, i had frequent ultrasounds at the end to monitor the head shape. the tech at the hospital who did my ultrasounds told me that they cant see the sagittal suture on ultrasound but they can see all the others. But they did watch boy #4's head shape through out my preg. my cranio dr told me that my 3rd son should have been a c-section as it caused more trauma to his head. his head was so odd that he had a really hard time getting out.

[AJ's Mommy]

They saw nothing on my ultrasounds that indicated anything wrong with his head. It didn't start to really show till he was 3 1/2 months and was diagnosed at 4 months

[kfa329]

Hi! That's great that you found this site while pregnant. I wish I had! Cranio also runs in my husband's family, so I knew that we had a 50/50 chance of having a cranio baby too. I was always told that they couldn't detect cranio until after birth, and I got a lot of 'well, wait and see responses' too.
But looking back, I think if I had known better what to look for, we probably could have spotted it on an ultrasound. My husband was right coronal, so we were looking for an asymmetrical face on the ultrasound, but if we had looked for bicoronal we might have noticed it before she was born.
At our 16 and 20 week ultrasound they noticed that Lydia had a lemon shaped head (or the 'lemon sign' -- google it). Since she was bicoronal, that would completely make sense. As it was, because they noticed something different with her head and because we had cranio in the family, I was prepared for the fact that she would probably have cranio. So at least when she was born I was prepared emotionally and knew somewhat our treatment options.
May I ask what type of cranio runs in your husband's family? Please let me know if I can help answer any questions!

[angeleka]

We did extra ultrasounds during my 2nd pregnancy including 3 and 4D at 32 weeks. We were relatively sure she was fine, but no one would say they were completely sure. Since there is no way to know for sure when the suture actually fuses or if it just never forms at all, it could happen in the last few weeks of pregnancy. If it happens after 32 weeks the head is usually too low into the pelvis to see the sutures on ultrasound. My doctor spoke with 4 different ultrasound departments trying to get me a 36 week ultrasound to check her head shape since my cranio son had such a traumatic delivery for both of us. All of the supervisors said it would be futile to do an ultrasound on the head that late in the pregnancy because there would be too hard to see the head.
At 32 weeks we could see all of the sutures except the metopic because of how she was turned. I guess it all depends on how they are facing and if they want to cooperate with the 'camera.' She was camera shy and no matter what we did she would not turn her head.

[Zara's mum]

as my pregnancies are relatively "high risk" and i suffer from extremly high blood pressure when not pregnant - and rocket high bp when pregnant - my obstetricion told me at my 6 week check up that he had "suspected there was something wrong with the babies head but thought it best to wait and see"
i think i would have preferred to know but i guess he had my best interest at heart...

[charliesmummy]

i had regular ultrasounds with my 2nd son after having a cranio child but they did say it was very hard to tell for sure x