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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

Pregnancy Scans/Scams!!!!!

34 replies

ohanotherone · 11/01/2011 10:14

For those using NHS services, if you want to know the sex of your baby do you have to pay to know???

I want to know the sex of my baby if possible but the NHS trust charges £50, not for a separate scan for just telling during the 20 week scan. I think this is tantamount to exortion. I appreciate some people are not bothered either way but I think that as a parent if a total stranger can see the sex of the baby and I want to know the sex, they sould not ask for £50 to tell me information that does not cost them anything.

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Milkybrew · 11/01/2011 10:21

Hi, my NHS trust point blank refuse to tell you the sex so I had to pay £55 to have a scan done privately. This was despite the sonographer at hospital being able to see exactly what sex was and even said we could look and try to guess but she wouldn't confirm! We guessed girl and this was confirmed at the private gender scan!
The rules seem to differ depending on where you live though!

cookingfat · 11/01/2011 10:54

Oh that sounds odd. Our trust doesn't tell you unless you ask. If you do ask, it's free. (But wasted on us as we're going for the 'Surprise!' option!).

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 11/01/2011 11:08

Actually I think it is reasonable. It isn't always obvious what the sex is, and the sonographer would have to try and get another angle etc.

What they are charging you for is the time it takes - on average - to check and confirm the gender. Reflected in the fact that private scans, certainly in this area, are somewhere around £100+.

The scans aren't to tell you what the sex of your baby will be, they are to check for potentially life-threatening anomalies.

Roxy33 · 11/01/2011 11:51

That sounds very odd, we asked the NHS onographer if she could tell us the sex and she did so free of charge. It didn't take that long, approx. 2 minutes to double check so I don't agree that a £50 charge is justifiable.

I did read however that it is entirely up to the sonographer as to whether they will tell you the sex, even if you ask.

BertieBasset · 11/01/2011 11:54

But they can't always tell you anyway depending on the position of baby?

Our trust will tell you if you ask, free of charge.

neverlookback · 11/01/2011 12:08

i think thats a total rip off, at my scan with my ds the sonographer was absoloutly dying to tell us it was a boy, he kept saying are you sure you dont want to know!!! i think he must of really enjoyed telling people what they were having!!

babynelly2010 · 11/01/2011 12:49

I don't know why to pay to 50 pounds to NHS, you already paid them with your taxes. Take your money to a private gender scan (69 at baby bond) find the gender early and have a great experience. I found NHS sonographers straight up rude and they don't deserve your 50 pounds.

Mahraih · 11/01/2011 12:52

Absolutely a rip off! What kind of extra effort does it take to say the words, 'It's a boy'?

Luckily our hospital asked us if we wanted to know, and told us, no fuss. We had to pay a few quid for pictures, which we thought was very sensible as they are making an effort to get you those, and using extra resources.

Sparklies · 11/01/2011 13:27

That's awful! Most of the time they spot the sex incidentally whilst scooting around to various parts, although yes, sometimes they hide. One NHS sonographer I had even looked for me at a 16 week cervical length check - he didn't have to at all as the length check was internal but he needed the external probe to see enough of the baby to tell sex. Lovely chap!

I can't imagine it costs them an extra £50 of time on average for every patient, more like an extra tenner or something.

I don't mind paying for the photos, although half the time they give those to me for free as well.

kikibo · 11/01/2011 14:12

That is disgusting! Usually they see it anyway, just like that.
How many pounds an hour are they paying them so that they have to charge 50 for, say, a maximum of 5 minutes if it is difficult? That's an amount of 600 pounds an hour! Come on!

I wanna be a sonographer too , cushty.

FoghornLeghorn · 11/01/2011 14:16

This reply has been deleted

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kikibo · 11/01/2011 14:21

What about asking the sex and then not paying? Would they ask for payment first?

I mean, they can't charge you by CLAIMING that they have said something... You can always claim that they didn't tell you and that you just spotted it. They can't make you pay for what you know.

ooh, that's devious , isn't it.

Original poster

ohanotherone · 11/01/2011 15:02

I've thought about the devious route but am probably not the sort to pull it off.

I am not asking for extra time just if during the course of the scan, they see the sex, they they tell me what they already know for FREE!!!!

The thought of someone sitting there and knowing the sex of my baby but demanding money for it makes me really upset!

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fingerscrossedgirl · 11/01/2011 16:24

I think it's utterly bizarre that they'd just refuse to tell somebody their baby's sex - assuming the baby was being cooperative and they could in fact see what was what, down there. How do they have the right to withhold the information? And what's the point? MENTAL.

Ours told us no problem, and we got charged £3.50 per printed-out picture, which I thought was a bit daft, but not a problem.

Original poster

ohanotherone · 11/01/2011 20:24

I'm not sure they legally do have the right actually. It is very paternalistic and probably discrimatory against women

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SpannerPants · 11/01/2011 20:33

I know they have a policy not to tell you in some areas because they noticed some people were having terminations after finding out that the baby was female, but I don't see why they would charge you £50, seems like a lot to me!

faverolles · 11/01/2011 20:37

I posted on one of the other of these threads this morning.
My sonographer (this pregnancy) had a rant to me (I had asked, it wasn't totally random!) about this.
In a nutshell, the points raised were:

Scan is to check for anomalies.
Many parents to be are pushy and anxious to get to the "important sexing part" of the scan.
Pushing to get to that bit can mean that the sonographer doesn't have his/her mind totally on the job.
Not all babies are easy to sex, it can take a while, and still not be accurate.
The time taken (when baby not flashing its bits!) to find out the sex wastes time and money on an already stretched NHS.

Her solution was to wish that anomaly scans were just for that, and if parents wish to find out the sex, they should arrange a paid scan for this, as (unless there is some sex-linked problem) it is not essential to know the sex.

I don't know if this reflects the opinion of other sonographers, or if she was having a really bad day!

Original poster

ohanotherone · 11/01/2011 20:38

It is one of the lowest wage areas in the country aswell. They charge because people pay and don't complain much!

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faverolles · 11/01/2011 20:38

No nutshell about that post! Sorry

Sparklies · 11/01/2011 20:38

Yes, exactly - if someone was going to terminate based on sex, stumping up £50 to find out boy or girl is hardly going to be an obstacle for them, is it?

It is quite clearly just another way to make money. I guess I have some sympathy in that the NHS is not what you would call loaded, but I still think it's underhand and there are other, better ways to raise funds than that.

Original poster

ohanotherone · 11/01/2011 20:41

I understand that Faverolles. I had my first baby at chelsea and westminster and they made it clear that additional time would not be taken, however, if noticed during the scan then the sonographer would say if parents wanted to know. That is a reasonable policy.

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Diamondback · 12/01/2011 10:54

WTF? I was offered the chance to know what sex the baby was at my 20 week scan, no extra charge. She did a double check, which took less than 30 seconds. Sometimes they can tell, sometimes they can't and it's never 100% accurate, which is all fair enough, but charging £50? I've never heard of such a thing.

Went for a 36 week scan yesterday, to check placental position, and they also didn't charge extra the confirm again that it's a girl, to show me an ear, or that my baby has hair! fuzzy hair! I'm having a hairy baby!

kikibo · 12/01/2011 11:16

"Many parents to be are pushy and anxious to get to the "important sexing part" of the scan.
Pushing to get to that bit can mean that the sonographer doesn't have his/her mind totally on the job.
Not all babies are easy to sex, it can take a while, and still not be accurate.
The time taken (when baby not flashing its bits!) to find out the sex wastes time and money on an already stretched NHS."

I think she was having a bad day, to be honest.

Really, there is no reason to let yourself as a sonographer be pushed to tell on the sex and be distracted from your main job, which is, indeed, to look for anomalies. I mean, that is just an excuse. We may then also presume that they are distracted when they hear a door slam in the hospital...
No, not all babies are easy to sex. It could not be discernable, it could be that on the next scan, it is a girl, where at first it was believed to be a boy. That does not mean that we should get charged 50 pounds. What if it is wrong anyway? Are they going to give back your 50 pounds or will you have to pay an additional 50 in order to have it confirmed or discredited? That is a ludicrous argument.

And indeed, time taken, may costs a little bit more, but how long is that time? I would hope they are not trying for half an hour to do it. If that were the case, then I would not trust them to look for anomalies either, actually.

But, yes, Spanner, I did not think about that. Maybe for some couples there would be that temptation... Whether that's a reason though to condemn all of us, is another matter.

LauLauLemon · 12/01/2011 11:24

I think it's utterly bizarre that they would charge for something they know and can tell you for free. I understand if the baby is in a difficult position and so there's no chance of finding out the sex - if you really want to know afterwards then you can always pay for a private sex scan which costs around £60 here (not 3D/4D - just a standard ultrasound). The primary concern of the anomaly scan is to detect anomalies, yes, but if the sonographer knows the sex of the baby and the parent/s ask the sex then I think it should be free information.

I always asked at the end of both of my anomaly scans, after all the essential checks had been made and we knew we had a healthy baby. We understood it was an educated guess as they can be wrong at times but we took her "I can't say for definite but it looks like a little girl" to mean a girl. DD2 was a girl. The sonographer with DD1 was pretty damn adamant she was a girl :o

LauLauLemon · 12/01/2011 11:24

*to detect abnormalities, not anomalies.

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