Gastroschisis

I wasn't going to talk about this because it is a very emotional and personal subject. However, I figured family and close friends should know. On the 10th of December 2008, Brandon and I went in to find out the sex of our baby. Those of you who have had children know what a tender moment that is, holding hands and seeing your little baby moving, heart beating, alive!! It's crazy how pregnancy works. It really is a miracle! Our radiologist did a very thorough ultrasound to make sure our baby was growing well and functioning as she should be. At the very end of the ultrasound the radiologist went to look to tell the sex of the baby. The gasp on his face said it all. "Oh, what's that?" Both mine and Brandon's hearts dropped. "What's what?" They called in another radiologist and then in a doctor from surgery before they could even tell us what was going on! A million thoughts were running through both of our heads. The doctor told us that our baby has gastroschisis.
What is gastroschisis? Gastroschisis (gas-tro-ski-sis) is an opening in the abdominal wall through which the internal organs push outside of the baby's body (see illustration at right). During fetal development the abdominal wall fails to close properly leaving an opening. The opening is usually to the right of the umbilical cord. This anomaly or birth defect is not commonly associated with any other defects except bowel strictures and/or atresias (narrowing of the intestines). It occurs in approximately 1 out of every 5,000 births. The cause of gastroschisis is unknown, but it is associated with younger maternal age and almost never occurs in mothers over 30 years of age. It is not related to anything the mother ate or did during pregnancy. Babies with gastroschisis are at an increased risk for stillbirth. The incidence of stillbirth is approximately 10 percent. These babies will often be smaller than normally expected. This means the baby weighs less than we would expect for the gestational age. A baby with gastroschisis will need to go to surgery soon after birth.Talk about how one word that you have never heard of can change your life. Since this original diagnosis we have met with several specialist who will perform the surgery and deliver the baby. We also found out that our babies small intestines are the only thing on the outside of the body, as opposed to other worse cases of several other organs. We will have to have the baby at the University of Utah and the doctors anticipate that we will be in the NICU anywhere from a month to three months. The doctors reassured us that once the baby has had the surgery and is released from the hospital there should be no further complications or lasting effects. We weren't able to find out at this ultrasound what the sex of our baby was, but now they have confirmed, since we have to have ultrasounds every two to three weeks, that we are having a girl. This whole thing makes me very nervous. They say that we could have our baby anytime after 32 weeks. Which is very soon! Brandon and I know that things will be alright though, even though we don't know why this is happening to our little girl. This situation has already brought us so close together as a family. I believe that everything will work out how it is suppose to. We want this little girl more than anything, and she obviously wants to be here or she wouldn't fight this hard.