Mom's mood at the 7th week of pregnancy changes, like the weather by the sea. Attacks of fun against the background of hormonal changes can be replaced by periods of increased anxiety and even panic for the health of the unborn baby. An ultrasound procedure, which is safe for both, will help to dispel doubts and calm the woman. In what cases during this period such diagnostics are required, how it is carried out and what can be seen on ultrasound during this period, we will tell in this material.
Objectives of the survey
At obstetric week 7, an ultrasound scan is not considered mandatory. If a woman feels good, then there is no need for him. However, it is during this period of time that many women are thinking about registering with an antenatal clinic. From the moment of conception, it is 5 weeks, from the first day of the delay, 3 weeks have already passed. There is practically no doubt about the "interesting situation", and the onset of toxicosis leaves no room for speculation. It's time to see a doctor, register and start taking the first tests.
Among them, there may well be a recommendation to visit an ultrasound office. The doctor can send a pregnant woman for this examination at such an early date for a number of fairly good reasons:
confirmation of the fact of pregnancy is required if the size of the uterus during manual examination does not indicate this;
there is reason to believe that the pregnancy is multiple;
conception occurred with the help of IVF;
the risk of an unfavorable outcome is increased - earlier the woman had miscarriages, frozen, ectopic pregnancies, intrauterine fetal death in the early stages;
a woman complains of severe toxicosis, pain in the lumbar region and lower abdomen, as well as discharge uncharacteristic for pregnancy.
An ultrasound scan at the seventh week is sometimes used to find out the exact timing of gestation.
Such measures may be necessary if a woman's cycle is irregular, she does not remember the date of the last menstruation. Finding out this now is important in order to know exactly when to send the expectant mother to the first screening. It runs from 11 to 13 weeks, and even one extra or missing week can affect its accuracy.
Do you need preparation?
Examination at 6-7 weeks of pregnancy is most often carried out by the intravaginal method. The term is still too short for the child to be clearly seen through the anterior abdominal wall. But through the vaginal wall the embryo is perfectly visible and you can find out all the questions of interest to the doctor regarding this pregnancy.
Transabdominal (through the stomach) ultrasound at this time is also performed, but only in exceptional cases. With this method, you can consider a baby in a woman of thin physique, but in the owner of extra pounds and curvaceous forms, visualization will be insufficient.
Preparing for an ultrasound scan at such a short period of pregnancy includes filling the bladderif the examination is carried out externally through the anterior abdominal wall. A few hours before visiting the doctor's office, the expectant mother should drink tea or juice, mineral water without gas. It will be enough 2-3 glasses so that by the time the diagnosis starts, the bladder is sufficiently filled.
There is no need to drink liquid before performing a transvaginal ultrasound. On the contrary, if you want to go to the toilet, it is better to go so that both the bladder and intestines are emptied of the contents and do not interfere with the examination. Intestinal gases can also distort the results if they accumulate in large quantities.
Increased gas production is not uncommon when carrying a child at any time, and therefore it is advisable not to eat foods that can contribute to flatulence in a few days. These include kale and yeast baked goods, legumes, sodas, sweets, and high-fat dairy products.
Intestinal loops swollen from gas can compress the pelvic organs. To prevent this from happening and the survey results are more reliable, a few hours before the ultrasound, it is recommended to take a dose of Simethicone or Espumisan.
The examination takes about 5-7 minutes. Everything is painless. The results are handed out immediately.
What does it show?
In the seventh week, the baby is officially still considered an embryo, although there are only a few days left until it becomes a fetus. A week earlier, it was difficult to consider at least something on an ultrasound scan, except for dark spots and spots. Now the embryo has grown approximately twice and is already well visualized on the screen of the scanning equipment. The fruit size is now 2.5 to 5 mm. Its weight is approaching 1 gram. To imagine the true parameters of a baby, it is enough to imagine a white bean. These will be the dimensions of your child along with the shells.
On ultrasound, the ovum with the embryo inside looks like an oval spot. However, a rich life boils inside. The baby this week began to unbend from the posture characteristic of the embryo, and also learned to move. Brushes appear on the arms at 7 weeks, and feet form on the legs. Instead of fingers, rudiments are still showing off.
The embryonic tail gradually decreases, which was a logical continuation of the line that will become the spine. In the head, large in comparison with the rest of the body, the formation of the brain begins, both hemispheres. The formation of the nose begins on the face.
The baby's heart is already four-chambered, just like that of mom and dad. The formation of the bronchi began.
It is clear that it will not be possible to see all these interesting and numerous processes on ultrasound. Also it makes no sense to ask the doctor a question about the sex of the child. Sex, although it is predetermined from the very moment of conception, cannot yet be considered - there are no external genital organs. Between the legs, the formation of a genital tubercle began, from which the main sexual differences are subsequently formed, but for now the female embryo is absolutely no different from the male embryo.
On an ultrasound in the seventh week, the place of attachment of the ovum is visible, and if the apparatus is good, then you can listen to the baby's heartbeat. If the technique in the ultrasound room leaves much to be desired, then the doctor will still be able to determine the pulsation in the heart area, and he will note that the fetus is alive.
Norms and interpretation of results
So far, the number of measurements carried out by an ultrasound diagnostician is as small as the baby itself. Therefore, a huge number of numbers and abbreviations in the conclusion after passing the diagnostics, as at later dates, will not be. Only the most basic parameters, which are still the only and decisive ones.
First of all, the doctor describes how many eggs are located in the uterus and where exactly they are fixed. If a woman is carrying twins, then this week it is already perfectly visible whether they are identical twins or not.
In relation to the embryo, the viability is determined - the heartbeat is recorded, and if you are lucky, then the physical activity. The size of the ovum indicates the development of the baby. It is measured between the inner walls, and therefore it is called SVD - the average inner diameter. The normal values of the ovum increase rapidly.
SVD
The results are decoded in accordance with the table:
The doctor is not limited to measuring SVD, he also assesses the contours of the ovum. In a normal pregnancy, it has a regular oval or round shape, clear and even contours, does not look squeezed and deformed.
From this week, another parameter appears, which from this moment will be more informative in terms of adjusting the exact timing of pregnancy. it coccygeal-parietal size - distance from the coccyx to the crown of the head, CTE. Now that the baby has learned to unbend, this parameter can be measured on an ultrasound machine of any level.
CTE
The results are decoded in accordance with the table:
The yolk sac, which provides the embryo with food, at the seventh week has a size not exceeding 4 mm. The baby's heart is gaining momentum and the heart rate (heart rate) this week is in the range of 126 to 149 beats per minute.
In addition, the doctor examines the uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries for pathologies and signs of threatened abortion.
Possible problems
As a result of an ultrasound scan at the 7th week of pregnancy, some problems may also be revealed, which cannot be ignored. The most common ones.
Anembryony
This problem has a second name - empty ovum syndrome. With anembryony, there is a fertilized egg in the uterus, but there is no embryo in it. This happens not so rarely - about every fifth pregnant woman, according to statistics, may have no embryo. The reasons for science are not known for certain, but doctors suspect that the death of the embryo at the very initial stage is caused by severe genetic "mistakes", previous infections, sudden jumps in hormonal balance, and an unhealthy lifestyle of a woman. Incidentally, it is unbelievable, but true - anembryonia is diagnosed quite often in professional athletes.
Doctors say that serious physical activity is to blame. It is at 7 weeks that diagnosticians usually make the final verdict - is there a baby in the uterus or not. Unfortunately, medicine is powerless in this situation. The fertilized egg is subject to scraping.
Frozen pregnancy
A woman may not even know about such an equally sad result of an ultrasound scan. The death of the baby may not affect her well-being. During the study, the doctor notes that the size of the ovum is far behind the norm, the ovum is deformed, no heartbeat and signs of physical activity of the baby.
If after a few days on repeated ultrasound the result is confirmed, and the drop in the level of the hCG hormone in the blood additionally "signals" the death of the baby, then the uterine cavity is scraped out. Embryonic tissues and particles of the membranes are sent to a genetic laboratory to find the true cause of what happened.
Ectopic pregnancy
The fact that the embryo is fixed in the fallopian tube or in the cavity behind the uterus can be said if at 7 weeks the ultrasound doctor does not detect an ovum in the uterus, although the level of hCG in the woman's blood is high enough to judge that pregnancy not only exists, but also develops. This is a very dangerous condition for a woman, requiring urgent surgical intervention to save a woman's life.
Risk of miscarriage
Thickening of the walls of the uterus in the seventh week according to the results of ultrasound may indicate the existing threat of termination of pregnancy, the presence of hypertonia. In this case, the woman is prescribed appropriate supportive treatment, which she can undergo at home or in a hospital - this is decided by the doctor.
Retrochorial hematoma
On ultrasound, it is visible as a darkened spot. Essentially, it is detachment of the ovum. The size of the hematoma determines the prognosis. In most cases, pregnancy can be maintained if the woman strictly observes all the doctor's recommendations.
Among the main reasons are increased physical activity, stress, a lack of the hormone progesterone, infectious diseases that the mother could have suffered at the earliest possible date after conception
Pictures
In the seventh week of pregnancy, there is no need for a 3D ultrasound. The image is still quite difficult to understand and decipher for an unprepared "viewer" like a future father. If you want to have in your family album the first “photo” of a little bean, then it will look something like this.
If twins are expected, then the ultrasound scan at this time will be something like this.
Identical twins at 7 weeks look like this.
