Scan at Harris Birth Centre, Kings, London

[StiffyByng]

Hi

Has anyone had scans at Kings? I have my first scan tomorrow. My letter makes no mention of drinking beforehand. I know some scans nowadays don't need you to drink anything. I'd rather drink and then have to wee than have to sit around for hours drinking if it turns out that I should have been on the water all morning, but any recent experience/wisdom gratefully received. I can't call them because I'm in a shared office and no opportunity to get out this afternoon!

Even if it does help, then you only need to be drinking water in the 30-60minutes before the scan. So I wouldn't worry - just take a bottle of water to sip while you wait and maybe have a cup of coffee or tea before you leave.

I had my 12 week scan at Kings recently - lost the letter so drank lots. Turns out you don't have to. Embarassingly had to go to the toilet 3 times during the scan! Hope that helps!

That really does help, thanks! Given how long the scan seems to take, I'd definitely be the same - I'd hate to ruin what I'm hoping will be a remarkable experience by desperately needing the loo throughout.

And thanks also for the info on how much to drink. I'm dreadful for needing the loo even when not pregnant and have a 30 minute journey to the hospital by public transport, so was rather dreading having to drink 2 litres of water and then head out.

I had my 12 week scan there a few weeks ago too and didn't need to have drunk a lot. I ended up being there for 4 hours because DC didn't want to get into the right position so ended up being sent for both a wee and a drink, but the staff were absolutely lovely and very quick to reassure that nothing was wrong, just a naughty/ lazy baby!

Enjoy, it's a fantastic experience :)

Thanks. I was so anxious about a missed miscarriage that the midwife took pity on my yesterday and listened for the heartbeat, which we managed to hear! So I'm just nervous about all the results now, but know that there will at least be a baby there to wave at. The midwives also warned me that although the staff are lovely, they often don't speak very good English so can come across as abrupt. Did you find that at all? Apparently they also have a habit of disappearing from the room without explaining and reappearing with a colleague, scaring the life out of you, and it's only because they need a better English speaker or have found something that will be of interest to a fellow researcher. So I'm braced for that!

i had both my scans there and they say you don't need a full bladder, though in my experience definitely drink something as makes it easier to see baby, and also they do nuchal bloods there and being dehydrated can make taking blood harder (speaking from experience! ).
be careful how much though, Kings is very busy and we waited almost 2hrs just to get seen!
good luck x
I ended up having to have an internal scan at the end of my 12 week as baby refused to show us he had a nasal bone, they let me empty my bladder before this.

Thanks, all. It was very straightforward in the end and no waiting at first because it was one of the first appointments - the queue was clearly building as we were leaving. Beautiful clear scan, well behaved baby and lovely staff. What a relief. The only thing is that they'd just given me my odds for Downs etc. when I noticed they had me as three years older than I am! When I looked closely, about 50% of the information on my form had been entered wrongly - most of it non-relevant - but I was a bit alarmed at the age thing as it could really matter. But they put it right straight away when I pointed it out.