I am a 29 yr old type 1 diabetic prgnant with my 3rd child. I have been diagnosed with a small placental abruption. My concern is that I am 20 weeks gestation and last 2 ultrasound showed echogenic bowel and heart ( location not specified). My triple screen was negative but cant t help but wonder if I can have an amniocentesis or if it is too risky? What are the risks for amnio increased too when a pre-exisiting abrution is present?
Hi there, The echogenic bowel and echogenic loci in heart make you at a slightly increased risk of having a baby with Downs Syn Chat Doctor.  You need to take a call about the amniocentesis, which will tell us if you definitely are carrying a genetically abnormal baby or not. This could help us a lot in managing the rest of the pregnancy. Also, the echogenic bowel could be due to certain fetal infections which also could be tested in the amniotic fluid. Usually a small amount of amniotic fluid is removed about 20 ml for these diagnostic purposes and these should not cause any problems with placental bleeding or separation. Placental abruption or separation or bleeding is seen in amniocentesis done in the later months later 28 weeks or so. Moreover, placental abruption is a diagnosis of later pregnancy, I would not label a collection behind the placenta at 20 weeks as abruption. Every amniocentesis has a miscarriage risk of 1%, that is 1 in 100 women who undergo amniocentesis have a miscarriage, this has to be kept in mind before undergoing the procedure. It would be advisable for you to undergo amniocentesis as the cause for echogenic bowel needs to be ascertained. Echogenic bowel seen in babies have a risk of having babies who are small for the gestational age and require monitoring for the rest of the pregnancy even if the results of amniocentesis is normal. Hope this helps. Regards.