Morning! Silversky- I had an email from the FMC waiting for me 5 mins after I called them, so you may want to ring them and double check. Although the directions to the FMC say that they are in the basement, the entrance is still through the main door, with the stairs down on the right hand side as you go in. Its bright, clean and airy, totally unlike the dark miserable NHS EPUs I've been in. You check in and there's a nice waiting area. You get bloods taken and normally you then wait 30 mins for the bloods to be processed then you get your scan. Its in a bright room- no need for darkness and they have sophisticated machinery so there's no need to have a full bladder. They do a very thorough check; the doc said she wished she'd done the measurements straightaway when the baby was asleep as when it started to wriggle, it was quite difficult! She did crown to rump measurements, checked arms and legs (you could even see toes), then did the nuchal fold check, then the other venal flow checks (several)and we heard the heart beating . We saw the baby from many angles including a formed, perfectly symmetrical brain! She then checked the flow of blood I was providing to the uterus on both sides to see if it was healthy or if there may be any signs that I could get pre-eclampsia (it was fine). Then she checked my ovaries- told me which one produced the egg and spotted a cyst on it, which would explain the stitch like pain I've had for quite a long time and the change in periods which my GP had shrugged off- so I'll get that checked out in 6 or so months....
She put all the results together, explained my risk of having a Downs baby and other chromosomal abnormalities, then got the bloods, combined the results and confirmed the riak and advised me that as it was low, she wouldn't recommend any invasive tests. She was really nice and was smiling all the way through the scan. My DH says that he came away with a much better understanding than he had when he went in.
I hope this is helpful!
Dillydora- I'm very pleased for you that you don't have syphilis .
Those people who have had private scans- did you have NHS ones too? Also, how does the detail of the private scan compare to what they do on the NHS one? I'm very tempted to go back to the FMC for the 20 week scan (all being well)you see, they were so nice.