Las Cruces resident Katarina Torrez was pregnant with her third child in 2023 and had no reason to think this pregnancy would be any different from the others.
At 20 weeks, she went in for a standard anatomy scan but the ultrasound technician said she could not get a good picture. They made a follow up appointment with the doctor, but Torrez, 25, said she had a feeling something was wrong.
Several appointments later, Torrez’s baby was diagnosed with spina bifida – specifically myelomeningocele spina bifida.
Diagnosed with a neural tube defect
Spina bifida is one type of neural tube defect (NTD) – a category of conditions that occurs when the neural tube of a developing embryo does not close properly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “the neural tube forms the early brain and spine” and typically closes in the early weeks of pregnancy.
Oftentimes, this portion of development occurs before a person knows they are pregnant.
There are four types of spina bifida, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Myelomeningocele spina bifida (MMC) is the most severe form of the condition and involves part of the spinal cord or nerves being exposed in a sac through an opening in the spine. The condition is called a “snowflake condition” because every case of MMC is different.