Not so easy

This makes me crazy. We asked and asked and asked for ultrasounds to determine the location of BB's cord in utero and all we got were blank stares. The u/s tech told us that she couldn't do it on her machine and that we couldn't just ask her to look for cord location. Our doctor would have to tell her to look for it on the ultrasound requisition.

When we asked our doctor to write said requisition, all she put was "check cord". So the u/s tech would do the Doppler flow and that was it. It was a never-ending cycle of insanity. I finally gave up.

BB was born with 2 loose loops of cord around his neck. Thanks for helping us manage that risk.

Things that OBs and u/s techs believe:

• umbilical cord accidents don't repeat (not true)
• you can't track umbilical cords with ultrasound (not true)
• you shouldn't listen to the patient when she is telling you to check for something (ridiculous - who did more research into cord accidents, my OB or me?)

At the end of this CTV piece, the couple urges pregnant women to ask for a scan for vasa previa. Um, actually, it won't be that easy. Trust me, I made myself sick over asking for "location of cord" scans and NOBODY helped me with that.

Unless the local health district makes vasa previa screening a mandatory part of it's obstetrical ultrasound protocol and then trains it's ultrasound techs, it ain't gonna happen.