What is Spina Bifida?

With Evanna’s diagnosis, there have been enough questions that I thought I’d do a series of posts about it, to help with understanding the condition and expectations.

The term is Latin for ‘split spine’…and it is a birth defect in which there is an incomplete closing of the backbone and membranes around the spinal cord. It is categorized as a neural tube defect–that is, around the 3rd week of pregnancy, the embryo begins to form the neural tube, which becomes the spine, the spinal cord, etc…and during that process, part of the tube doesn’t close In the case of spina bifida, there is a protrusion from the body of spinal fluid and in many cases (including Evanna’s), part of the spinal cord.

Compared to this illustration, Evanna’s appears to be much smaller and lower, both of which are good.

In next post, I’ll go into some of the other issues related to her spina bifida.

We’ve been asked about registry…we’ve got one started on Amazon, but we actually stopped after the first ultrasound concerns, because we didn’t know what we were facing or what we’d need…or after the second one where we weren’t sure about her prognosis. So it’s there, and we’ll be adjusting soon (after this weekend)…so keep an eye out. [For example, we need to avoid latex (for reasons that their not sure of at this point, babies with spina bifida have a very high risk of allergic reaction to latex), so we’ve got to check that…]

With Evanna’s diagnosis, there have been enough questions that I thought I’d do a series of posts about it, to help with understanding the condition and expectations. The term is Latin for ‘split spine’…and it is a birth defect in which there is an incomplete closing of the backbone and membranes around the spinal cord.…