“Can doctors identify congenital heart disease while the baby is in the womb?”
My nephew was born with a slight heart murmur. My sister and I aren't sure how this happened, as throughout her pregnancy, her doctor said that she was very healthy. When he was born, the doctors said that this could be congenital heart disease. Could this have been identified while he was in the womb?
2 Answers
A mild heart murmur doesn’t mean that the baby has a heart disease; it can be an innocent, functional murmur. In general, complex heart disease can definitely show up by prenatal testing, but not all types of defects, unfortunately.
Yes, most congenital heart disease can be detected with ultrasound from about 14 weeks or earlier. Note that not all heart diseases are detected in pregnancy. Mild types the involve the the septum (curtain separating the left side of the heart from the right) may sometimes be difficult to detect in pregnancy.
