Photo: The East Family/ Youtube
Pregnancy has not been a complete cakewalk forShawn Johnson East.
The former professional gymnast — who experienced a miscarriage last year beforerevealing she was pregnant againthis past April — got candid in aThursday YouTube vlogwith husbandAndrew Eastabout one reason they haven’t been super open as of late about their specific journey toward parenthood.
“I felt like someone knocked every ounce of air out of me,” she says.
The East Family/ Youtube
“She’s like, ‘That could be normal, itcould be something that corrects itself, or it could get worse,’ ” the mom-to-be explains of their conversation.
East, 27, says they weren’t as worried because doctors told them the condition was common, affecting up to 30 percent of unborn babies. (According to the University of California, San Francisco’sDepartment of Urology, dilated kidneys in a fetus occurs in about 1 in 100 pregnancies.)
But the second problem concerned the couple a little bit more: a two-vessel umbilical cord as opposed to three, which Johnson East says the doctor told them affects 1 percent of pregnancies.
According toamericanpregnancy.org, “The umbilical cord is” usually “made up of three blood vessels: two smaller arteries which carry blood to the placenta and a larger vein which returns blood to the fetus” — but Johnson East only has one artery and one vein.
And then the doctor told them something that madethem consider genetic testing: ” ‘Usually, if we see [the kidney issues and two-vessel cord] together, there is a chance for Down syndrome.’ ”
Andrew (L) and Shawn Johnson East.The East Family/ Youtube
Although the couple did end up getting the genetic testing done on their doctor’s recommendation, they don’t share the results, telling fans they will cover that portion of the story in a follow-up video.
source: people.com
