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Original poster

Sexing via scans and litigation!! Who would?

42 replies

Piffleoffagus · 17/06/2004 16:57

Apprently some hospitals refuse to sex on ante natal scans incase parents litigate if they are wrong...
OK, call me naive but who would litigate? does this mean if people found out the baby was the other sex they would end the pregnancy? is it because they paint the nursery pink or blue and want a refund?
Did anyone ever have a sexing during a scan, and them not say, we could be wrong, but it sur points to being s/he...?
Baffled

OP posts:

secur · 17/06/2004 17:03

Message withdrawn

coppertop · 17/06/2004 17:47

Round here we're not even allowed to ask what the sex of the baby is. Before you have a scan you have to sign a form promising not to ask and agreeing that you will be asked to leave the scan-room if you try to ask or drop hints. I even had a scan on the day I was induced because they wanted to check that ds2 wasn't in a breech position. The MW looked at the screen, said that he could see the sex of the baby but that he still wasn't allowed to say whether we were having a boy or a girl. Perhaps he thought dh would rush out while I was in labour and go on a spending spree in Mothercare to buy pink/blue. I heard unofficially that the reason is that a lot of people had opted for an abortion when they discovered that the baby was the 'wrong' sex in their culture.

eidsvold · 19/06/2004 04:34

the hospital trust where I was having antenatal care in the Uk prior to leaving has a policy of not telling the gender due to the % ( minute amount) that were wrong and caused undue distress. The only way they would consider checking and informing woman of the gender was if it was a genetically inherited condition that could affect the child depending on its gender. They had this information printed on their information leaflet regarding ultrasounds.

sweetkitty · 23/06/2004 09:27

At our hospital it wasn't a problem about 5 minutes into the scan the sonographer turned round calm as you like and said oh it's a girl!

I cannot believe people would try and sue because they were told the wrong sex, a healthy baby is a blessing regardless of sex. What's a coat of paint on a nursery compared to having a healthy baby? I for one have kept all the reciepts just in case

Fio2 · 23/06/2004 09:29

When I had my 2 it was the same as coppertops hospital. You were not allowed to ask and you would not be told. It was for the same reasons, that some would abort if it wasnt the desired sex tbh I didnt want to know anyway, but hey ho

frogs · 23/06/2004 09:42

With my dd1 (9 years ago) the hospital policy was not to tell, on the grounds that they couldn't always see the sex and didn't want to be under pressure to extend the scanning time to find out information that wasn't clinically relevant.

With ds (5 years ago) the standard scanning policy was the same, but we had some super-special anomaly scans in the fetal medicine department because I'd been exposed to hand foot and mouth disease at 8 weeks pregnant, and when I asked about the sex they told me it was a girl, and gave me a guided tour of the 'female' genitalia. Imagine my surprise when 20 weeks later...

cazzybabs · 23/06/2004 09:42

My friend was told she was having a girl and went out and bought lots of pink things and in the end it turned out it was a boy! She didn't sue - she just laughed!

jampot · 23/06/2004 09:54

I knew we were having a boy with our second pregnancy from about 20 weeks - I simply asked and the lovely male radiographer told me and during a later scan even printed off several piccies of ds blowing a bubble, having a wee and other head shots. I have a picture of his lovely face just 2 weeks before he was born. I suspect they are selective in who they inform though.

webmum · 23/06/2004 10:10

TBH I can't quite beleive how they can get it wrong, if they are able to see every other part of the body, to check it's fine, how can they not see the genitals? or internal sexual organs for the baby?

A friend's baby had an ovaric cysts which was spotted during her 20week scan....!!! Admittedly this was at a private clinic, with proper equipment and not the fuzzy machines they have at some NHS hospitals...

In my opinio if they can't be sure about the sex, they can't be sure about much else, and if I didn't have my scan at UCLH Fetal medicine centre, I'd have had a private one as well!!!

Litigation does not have to be an issue, all they have to do is give the disclaimer, I think it's very patronising for hospitals not to sex babies, they do not have to spend hours doing it, but if they see it and the parents wish to know, I cna't understand why shouldn't they tell. And they should be able to explain they can't spend too much time on it.

As far as sex discrimination in some cultures is concerned, I believe in the UK it is only small numbers, and then again, if an unwanted daughter comes to the world, and is neglected and mistreated it's difficult to say whether it an bortion would have been better....

Hulababy · 23/06/2004 10:16

From all the info I was give, and I read on Internet/leaflets, during my pg it was always made very clear that sexing can never be for certain. So much depends on the way the baby is laying, and I think they can only say that it is "probably..."

I agree that this idea of litigation has probably come from America where litigation occurs over everything. Very sad. Can't belive someone one sue over getting the "wrong" baby - fgs, they should be happy that they have a baby full stop IMO!

Hulababy · 23/06/2004 10:18

Forgot to add (in my rant, sorry) that we were not given the option ofsexing information at all. This was 2 years ago in Sheffield, I believe their policy has chanced since this. I had one scan at 16 weeks, that's all. Sexing was not "permitted". The scan was merely for dating.

frogs · 23/06/2004 11:05

Er, webmum, don't want to freak you or anything, but it was UCLH fetal medicine department who gave me a guided tour of the labia and ovaries of what subsequently turned out to be my son...

Blu · 23/06/2004 11:10

Webmum: I also wouldn't assume that NHS scanning is generally sub-standard to private! The field is led by feotal-medecine clinics such as Harris Birthright with the most state of the art equipment...and even they, with the most experienced feotal sonographers, only managed to identify part of DS's abnormailty. It is extremely useful as a diagnostic tool, but not foolproof or all-seeing.

hmb · 23/06/2004 11:23

We were told that dd was 'probably' a girl. Ds we knew was a boy from the amnio, however if I had wanted a surprise it would have been ruined at what I saw at a late scan, a whopping pair of testicles and a penis!!!! Untrained in scans as I am it was sooooooooo obvious, all depends on the position of the babe I suppose.

piglit · 23/06/2004 13:49

At our 20 week scan db was being very shy but the sonographer said it's "probably" a boy. I really don't care either way and was just so thrilled that all was well at the scan. However, I would love to know how wise MNetters who have been told the wrong sex feel when db arrives. Especially if you've had the chance to "get used" to the idea of a dd or ds. Is it a real shock? Does it take long to adjust? I still try to call my bump "it" but dh and I do occasionally talk about "him". I'd be interested to know what effect an incorrect sexing has when db arrives.

Easy · 23/06/2004 14:00

I had lots of scans. At the first one, they asked if we wanted to know, and I said yes (couldn't bear the thought that they might know, but I didn't). On that scan they said probably a boy, wouldn't be certain, but I'd signed a disclaimer anyway.

Thru all my other scans they confirmed his gender so I used to talk to him all the time, using his name. In my last few weeks pre-birth even the MW addressed ds by name thru my tummy.

Oh, and just one more thing. In a latish scan, it was me, not the radiographer, who noticed ds had extra fingers and toes!

Blu · 23/06/2004 14:04

At Harris Birthright in Kings I had said I didn't want to know the sex, so they sped over the middle bit...but I was sure I had glimpsed The Evidence. We ended up having amnio, and they were v careful to find out whether we still wanted to not know the sex, and referred to him as 'the baby' throughout the 'results' phonecall.

suedonim · 23/06/2004 16:17

A friend had a baby last week and even with the latest 3D scanning equipment (NHS, not private!) they hadn't been able to see what sex the baby was. Not only that, the scan predicted an approx 9lb 8oz baby - friend had a little dot of 5lb 7oz!! I think we have to take the info from scans with a pinch of salt, tbh.

nikcola · 23/06/2004 16:25

at our hospital they wont tell you the sex of your baby i dont no why

webmum · 23/06/2004 16:28

frogs

now you HAVE freaked me out!!!

Don't you think if they can get the sex wrong, then they can get other things wrong as well???

What's the point of having scans then????

webmum · 23/06/2004 16:33

Blu

I did not mean ALL NHS are sub-standard, but definitely the two hospitals where I had my normal scans did, places where they do research like the Harris Birthrih(however its spellt) are NOT the standard which is why you are referred there if they think there might be a problem as the local hospitals' equipment is not good enough to detect them. (I was referred to UCLH because of this)

The sole fact that they ask you to go full bladder when at other places don't, means teh equipment is not exactly state-of-the-art.

mummytosteven · 23/06/2004 16:34

At my hospital they would tell the sex if you requested this. What surprised me when I did request this (quite a way into scan, after I was told all the measurements were OK) it took the girl a few minutes to tell me the sex, as she had to get ds into the correct position. I just assumed that they would check the bits routinely, in case of any obvious structural problems, and would record the sex on their internal records, but obviously not.

mummytosteven · 23/06/2004 16:37

Regarding full bladder and u/s scans - this was only a problem at my earliest scan at 6 weeks (when they should imo have done an internal anyway). I didn't have a full bladder as had to wait over an hour to be seen, and got told off by the ultrasonographer. For the 15 week one I assumed I wouldn't get in on time, so didn't have a full bladder, just had a small glass of water. The ultrasonographer didn't have any problems. After that I gave up on the full bladder lark! So although it may be recommended to have a full bladder at standard NHS hospitals, it does not mean that this is strictly necessarsy (apologies if TMI about my bladder!!)

webmum · 23/06/2004 16:40

this all very scary reading, I mean, the point of having a scan is making sure the baby has all the bist and pieces in the right places etc.

I had a scan at UCLH to check the heart was ok, as the local hospital would not have been able to do check beyond that there were 4 valves.

I can understand they can the weight wrong as it's only an estimate, but the rest?
How can I now be sure their findings were accurate enough?

Oh I was SO relieved after the scan....

Sorry if I keep going on about this but Frogs (not your fault ) your experience makes me think... a lot!

Jimjams · 23/06/2004 16:51

webmum- scans cannot pick up on everything. A ot depends on the equipment, or the skill of the individual doing the scan, or just how it appears on the screen. Scans can only ever be a screening tool. They give lots of false positives, but also miss a lot. But no antenatal tests can tell you everything. That's just the way pregnancy is.

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