I’m still growing my ABS Baby

Hi everyone! My name is Barby, and my husband and I were delighted when we found out I was expecting in March of 2018… Even more over the moon when we found out in June via the Harmony test that it would be a boy! I come from a family of all girls, so this was exciting for the soon-to-be grandmas too. My entire pregnancy has been a breeze. The worst symptom I had was heartburn and maybe a headache here and there. Heck, I even lost a few pounds just because my appetite wasn’t what it used to be.

Those early months flew, and before we knew it, it was time for the anatomy ultrasound at 20 weeks. My OB sends all her patients to a perinatologist for screening as a cautionary measure, so I had already been to that doctor before. Everything looked perfect about my little man, but when the ultrasound tech called the doctor in for further examination, I had a feeling something wasn’t right. I was soon informed that while everything else looked great, my son would be born missing the lower half of his right arm. I was absolutely heartbroken for my baby. Of all the terrible things that race through your pregnant mind when you think of congenital abnormalities, I had never once considered this possibility. It was a big shock, and it took us a few days to process this information. Our perinatologist suspected ABS, but recommended an amniocentesis and some additional blood work to rule out anything more serious. We had all the tests done, and waited patiently for the results.

I am now 24 weeks along and my little Lucas is perfectly healthy and kicking up a storm. The final consensus from the specialist is Amniotic Band Syndrome. The good news is that he is moving freely about, so he isn’t still bound by any bands, and that means I can still deliver naturally (hopefully). My OB said that once he is born, the afterbirth will be sent to a pathologist for further testing, and I can only hope it brings us more answers.

There is so little information out there on this condition. Even my OB mentioned the studies and medical journals are pretty silent about it. This website has been so helpful to us during this whole process, so I just want to thank you for putting this information out there. To any future parents out there struggling with a similar scenario, in addition to this site, we did tons of research on facebook and instagram to find children affected by ABS and it really helped us to see that he would grow up to be able to do just about anything he wants to. I will definitely post again after he is born and with any updates! Thanks again!