Scan at 10am.. I want to take DC out of school.

[Pinkflamingo121318]

Basically that.. would I be unreasonable to take them out for a couple of hours, then straight to school from the hospital.

DC are 4 and 5.
I want to take them with me for the scan.. it's the sexing scan and I'd love for them to be there.

It is 10am so they'd be back at school by 11:30 at the latest.

This will be our last baby and can't afford to have a 4D one during a half term.

A scan is a medical procedure; it's to make sure all is well with the foetus, not to make fun memories

^ This.

OP - the clue's in the name - it's an anomaly scan. It's often hard enough for parents to cope with the results of these, so not sure why you would want to risk inflicting that on your DCs too.

Plus, it could cloud your judgment if you need to make tough decisions, and you might want to think about how you are going to tell the DCs if there is an anomaly, rather than you all finding out at the same time.

The scan is on a future date. OP posted at 11:27am.

I'll give the OP the benefit of the doubt that she is planning ahead.

She mentions that they cannot afford a 4d scan in the half term? I assume this would be before the 20w NHS scan.

As I say there are lots of places that offer a £39 sex scan and they do evenings and weekends too!

Children are usually not allowed into the sonography room-check that they can actually go in before taking them out ifs hook.

I wouldn't take them if you can avoid it.

I had to take DS1 (4 at the time) along to my 20 week scan because I had no childcare and DH was struggling to get out of work for the scan. Fortunately DH managed to turn up at the hospital just before the scan. I was expecting that DH would have to wait outside with DS1 but the sonographer actually invited DH and DS1 along to the room to see the whole scan when they didn't immediately start coming with me. And fortunately the 20 week scan went well.

But, I had a later scan in the same pregnancy (without my other DC present), a scan which was supposed to be routine and which actually flagged up a potential problem with the baby. I was in pieces in the waiting room after that while I was waiting to see the consultant, and the whole thing would have been so much harder to deal with if I'd had a small child in tow.

I definitely wouldn't take children to a foetal anomaly scan. It's a medical procedure, not a fun day out.

The last trust I worked in wouldn't allow it, because when we had to break bad news, there would be no one to take the children, who then became distressed themselves and it made an already upsetting situation very grim.

Really inappropriate. I am all for thinking positive but this scan is to test if they can see any physical abnormalities in the baby or the placenta.
At our scan children were not allowed to come with women for scans. If I had brought DH and DC he would have had to sit outside with them.

I think taking them out of school is not on either but also for me it was just a relief that as far as they could tell this baby would survive pregnancy and birth.

I used to work in obs and gynae so perhaps more aware that pregnancy and scans can be devastating, heartbreaking, life or death events rather than a "gender reveal"

At my 20 week scan I found out that my DS has a disability. If I had other children I would have wanted to explain this in a more child friendly way, not hear it from the sonographer before I even understand what they mean. Google private scan they are pretty reasonably priced. I had a few with my DS and if I have more children I would book one to take my DS along to.

Totally ridiculous. It's a medical procedure, not a spectator sport.

FGS op.

As others have said it's not a bloody sexing scan.

You do not take small children to your anomaly scan unless you are (a) desperate for childcare or (b) stupid.

You do not take children out of school unless absolutely necessary either.

That's not to say you can't take your DC to a scan once you know all is ok, but do it outside school hours! We booked an extra private scan, at our NHS hospital - many offer this option - at about 25 weeks. So we knew the anomaly scan was fine and we were past the critical 24 week viability stage. Took our two DC, then aged 7 and 3, one afternoon. Was lovely and cost about £90 as I remember.

Look, it's a medical procedure to make sure there's nothing wrong with the baby, not a fun family outing. Hopefully all will be fine, but they do it for a medical reason. If something is wrong, do you really want to be told in front of your 4+5 year-olds? Do you want them there while you ask any relevant questions?
This from someone who had a missed miscarriage diagnosed at 12-week scan.

No I wouldn't because of the risk of hearing some difficult news. I had to take my DD to my 28 week growth scan as it was in the holidays and I couldn't get childcare and I was still terrified that I might be told something distressing that I would have to manage in front of her. Although the baby was born 3 weeks later and my eldest was with me which was obviously distressing for her and I had to try and keep it together in front if her whilst terrified I was about to lose the baby. I wouldn't recommend it

Echoing what others have said, I wouldn't. I am pregnant with my second and have not taken ds to any NHS scan. They are medical and there to check on the baby not for a fun trip for other children. You don't know if you will even find out either.

Wait until they get home and tell them in a fun way then.

Is that the sole purpose of the scan at 20 weeks, silly me, I thought it was a medical procedure to find out if your baby is developing normally .

The moment when the sonographer pauses, and then says they need to call a consultant, is not the moment you want to risk sharing with your DCs.

Why do people call the anomaly scan a sexing scan?? It isn't!
They're obviously lucky enough to have never had worrying news at one.
It's a scan to do some pretty important checks, then if the view is clear they can quickly tell you the sex at the end.

Given it's the anomaly scan I really wouldn't. In addition to what others have said about there being a small chance of them finding something wrong there may be other women there who have had bad news and they might find it rather distressing to have two children running about.

I am quite surprised people actually want to do this.
Scan is a medical check up. Would you take your children to other medical check ups?

YABU - show them the picture. You can't take them to the anomaly scan, what if there's actually something flagged??

You probably don't need someone else to say that it's not a good idea, but I'm another person who found an anomaly at the anomaly scan. We were referred directly to foetal medicine, and I would have hated for my eldest to be there.

The chance that there would be anything wrong is small, of course. But I just don't think it's appropriate to think of it only as a scan to find out what sex your baby is.

Please don't. You can let them know the sex on a fun way afterwards once you know the baby is ok. I know of 2 cases where the kids were present as their mums were given bad news. My hospital will not allow children in anymore.

I didn't take my children in case there was something wrong but I wanted us to all find out the sex at the same time so I asked for the sex to be wrote on a piece of paper I didn't look and we opened it that night as a family.

I think the OP has recieved the point loud and clear.

Good luck OP.

Are you joking?