Congratulations and welcome @soozC!
Lovely to hear from you @cuppasarah, hope you’re doing ok in the circumstances.
@senzaparole03 early scans are private so usually no waiting time as such, you just book in for whenever they have availability. No point going before 6 weeks, usually better to wait till nearer 7. The later you go the more you will see.
Where I go is £70 but somewhere else locally offers for £45. I’m in the West Midlands.
The benefit is you hopefully get reassurance early on that the pregnancy is viable. If a heartbeat is detected your risk of miscarriage drops, how low depends on how far along you are. Clinic I go to says drops to 10% at 6 weeks, 5% at weeks and 2% at 8 weeks.
The negatives are you may get bad news, although it does mean you find out earlier then you otherwise might. But also sometimes the scans are ambiguous eg they cannot detect a heartbeat but cannot say if that’s because pregnancy isn’t viable, or because it’s just too early. This can cause an agonising wait.
I have had 2 because I am impatient but some people prefer to just wait till 12 weeks seeing as it won’t change anything anyway.