Hi there,
I don't often post on here (in fact I'm a serial lurker!), but couldn't read this and run, as I had a similar thing.
An amniotic band was discovered at my 16-week scan, and I had to go back at 20 weeks. During this time, I did a lot of research on the internet. Please DO NOT do this, as all you will find is scare stories and worst case scenarios.
Anyway, here's what I know. True amniotic bands in early pregnancy can cause serious complications. They are long, wispy threads of tissue that can wrap themselves around the baby and restrict growth. This is the "amniotic band syndrome" that you will find if you do any internet research, and it's very rare. There are also things call amniotic sheets or folds, which are thicker and appear like a column in the uterus, and occur in about 1 in 200 pregnancies. So they are rare, but really not that rare, and a sonographer will see many over the course of a year. Confusingly enough, "amniotic band" is the term that gets used to cover all of them - true bands, sheets and folds.
I found a really helpful article here:
http://www.obgyn.net/us/cotm/9909/bands.htm
As soon as one of these came up on my scan, I was thrown into a panic, but my consultant wasn't remotely worried. Apparently if they are detected after 16 weeks, they are very unlikely to cause a problem, and the baby will gradually just squash them as it grows. We went for an interim scan privately at 18 weeks, and the column was just a stump. When we went for our NHS scan at 20 weeks, the sonographer could find no sign of it left at all. So hopefully the same thing will happen with yours - apparently in 80% of cases it disappears by 24 weeks. But even if it doesn't disappear, I was told that the baby can live quite happily alongside it. I've got a 24-week scan today, so I'm hoping that it has still officially gone!
I hope that this reassures you a bit, and trust me I know how worrying it can be to be told something like this. I still worry about mine every day, despite being told that it's no longer there!!!!
Good luck with the next scan, and let me know if you have any questions. I'm not in any way an expert or a health care professional, but I have done an awful lot of research!!!
Jo xx
I have heard ofthis before but dont really know much about it. I had a look here
