St Thomas nuchal scan v elsewhere NHS

[iwantkhaleesiseyebrows]

Hi mumsnetters - have previously posted this in pregnancy but suddenly occurred to me this is a more appropriate place.

....

I’ve got major anxiety going on and I was hoping that someone could help.

My GP has just transferred my antenatal care from my local hospital to St Thomas due to serious health issues and DC1 having potters syndrome. I have my 12 week scan coming up and this will now be done at St Thomas. I find the whole scan process extremely traumatic and was hoping someone could talk me through their 12 week scan experience at St Thomas…..

I’m particularly interested to know how detailed this was. For example, I know Kings are meant to be leaders in their field - I recently had a Kings sonographer scan me privately at FMC at 10 weeks and she told me that at 12 weeks you can see kidneys and bladder (our first baby didn’t have any). However, my local hospital doesn’t routinely look for these at the 12 weeks scan –with my last pregnancy, despite my history, I had to ask the sonographer to specifically look for them.

I’m just trying to mentally prepare myself for the level of scanning to expect – is it in line with Kings standard (which I had for DC1 after initial problems diagnosed by local hospital), a local hospital standard or somewhere in between.

Thanks in advance

[SunnyBaudelaire]

unless things have changed a lot then you are lucky to be going to St Thomas and I imagine it would be inline with Kings tbh.
AM convinced my twin 2 would have died if not for a very observant sonographer at Tommy's,

[minipie]

St Thomas's is up there as one of the top London maternity hospitals along with Kings, St Georges, UCH etc and I know they run various specialist antenatal services for high risk women so I would expect their scans to be as detailed as you can get anywhere on the NHS. Certainly I'd expect same level as Kings.

Sometimes the NHS scans are less detailed than private ones - this is not because the sonographers are less good and can't see the detail, but because the NHS takes the view that the extra detail is not a reliable indicator of anything. For example the NHS nuchal scan doesn't look for nasal bone because their view is the research doesn't show a clear enough link between nasal bone and Downs. But FMC will look at nasal bone.

[iwantkhaleesiseyebrows]

Thank you so much. I really appreciate your comments and feeling more reassured.

[daluze]

You'll need a very good sonographer to see kidneys at 12 weeks, but it is certainly possible. You may need to have it as a separate scan though, rather than routine 12 weeks scan, as I doubt that any hospital would have all sonographers qualified to that level. At least for me at UCH, I had a detailed anatomy as a separate scan in they fetal medicine unit few days after my routine 12 weeks scan. And they certainly saw kidneys at 13 weeks, although the doctor joked, that "everyone would tell you that you cannot see kidneys at 13 weeks, but look - one kidney, and here the other". All I could see was grey on grey, but I was sure he was right!

[iwantkhaleesiseyebrows]

Thanks daluze. I really appreciate you taking the time to respond and helping prepare me for what to expect. I've now also booked in for 13 week scan at FMC and professor should be scanning me so fingers crossed that gives me the reassurance I need.

[daluze]

It sounds like you'll be in good hands. I hope you'll get the reassurance you need and can enjoy the rest of the pregnancy!

[iwantkhaleesiseyebrows]

Just a quick update- had scan today at tommies. It was very detailed - much much more so than at my local hospital. They checked nuchal, nasal bone, blood flow, placenta, bladder, stomach, heart, spine etc. Feeling more reassured now. Thanks to everyone who replied.