We've had two visits at UVA - and the good news was that the valve leakage did not appear to be any worse. This is quite good, because that is the only clear and present "threat" to Gwenyth in-utero (at least as far as I understand it). The placenta takes care of oxygenating all her blood. All babies in the womb have a extra vessel that causes the majority of blood to bypass the lungs. The lungs, you see, are not needed until birth at which time the little by-pass seals up - is that not just wild?
However, her heart, in-utero, does still have to pump the blood and with the valve not sealing completely after each "pump" over time, excess blood can back up into the bottom two chambers of the heart. Without going into much detail, we'll just say, this is not good, and we'll leave it at that. Her heart is not alarmingly large, but it is a bit larger and this is normal, as the heart must compensate for the valve insufficiency (or regurgitation if you prefer) by working a bit harder and thus, becoming enlarged.
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