Anencephaly is a congenital birth defect. While the
word anencephaly means « without a brain », it does
not accurately describe a child with such a defect.
Children with anencephaly do have a brain, but it is
not fully developed.
A baby with anencephaly is admittedly born with little
scalp, cranium vault, or brain, but he or she does
usually have part of the cerebral trunk. Your baby's
facial features will be complete; however, there will
be an opening in the skull. The size varies from child
to child. If you look into the opening, you will
see some brain tissue. Your baby's head can be
covered with a cap if you do not want to see this.
There may be other problems with your baby's body
(folded ears, cleft palate, open spine), but usually
your baby's body will develop normally.
(Source: http://www.anencephaly.info/pdf/anen-info_2006-USA.pdf )
Anencephaly is diagnosed through ultrasound or after birth
Treatments
During your pregnancy, your baby will receive
everything needed through the mother and so grows
well, just like any healthy baby. After birth, however,
vital functions cannot be sustained for long. Though
breathing is often spontaneous, it is not stable
enough.
Many babies with anencephaly live throughout the
pregnancy to birth. Still, some die prematurely while
others die during the delivery. This is called
stillbirth. Those who survive may live a few seconds,
minutes, hours, or even days. While there have been some children that have lived months or years with Anencephaly it is very uncommon. Sadly, the condition is
not correctable or reversible. Anencephaly is always
I am an advocate for Anencephaly Awareness and run a group on Facebook, Anencephaly Hope I provide support and care packages for families and specially made hats for babies with Anencephaly.
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In late February of 2014, I found out I was expecting my second child. On March 21, 2014 I had my first ultrasound. I was 8 weeks pregnant. They told me everything looked good so my next ultrasound wouldn't be until June 13, 2014. That would be my 20...
My daughter, Bryli, was diagnosed with Acrania-Anencephaly in utero April 1, 2016. She was born August 10, 2016 and lived a beautiful 35 minutes before peacefully passing away, and returning home to her Heavenly Father.
First ultra sound November 18, 2016
We were 7 weeks and 3 days
December 16, 2016
We were 11 weeks 3 days we had our second ultra sound - during our routine ultra sound we were able to see our baby moving around my tummy so ...
1 people with Anencephaly have taken the SF36 survey. Mean of Anencephaly is 1025 points (28 %). Total score ranges from 0 to 3,600 being 0 the worst and 3,600 the best. Take the SF36 Survey
Symptoms
Treatments
