Consultant scanning

[sarahmia]

I have had two complicated pregnancies in the past year which have both ended in a loss. because of the complications, I was seen by the lead consultant in the fetal medicine unit in UCH. He has scanned me himself.
I went for a 12 week scan yesterday with him (not because there was any complication, more out of fear and I trust him.) and he scanned me himself and literally in about 5 mins he was done. He said, everything looks great baby measuring perfect. I declined downs testing, but he told me the nuchal looks good anyway. we all had a bit of a hug and a cry and then they handed me the most basic report i have ever seen! no graphs or anything, just some measurements. my EDD. How many weeks i am and a little paragraph about what they saw.
my husband feels that they rushed.
I don't feel that way, I feel like my consultant doesn't care about graphs, everything looks normal and that's good enough for him. with the other 2 pregnancies, he was able to tell me as quickly there was something wrong and what it was.
I just feel like he is extremely competent and very experienced and knows what he sees. normal is normal.
am i convincing myself?

I had my dating scan yesterday with a sonographer and it was similar to yours - they didn't due nuchal because the baby was too big, but she commented that it had a perfect nasal bone and that was a good thing, we quickly talked about the position of the placenta (anterior) and she typed out a report which just had the measurement, presence of heartbeat and EDD!

I wasn't aware that they did anything more than this, but then this is my first pregnancy so I'm a novice at this :)

I would trust an experienced consultant, they see so many abnormalities day in, day out that they know what normal looks like. Good luck!

I had my 20 week scan with sonographer, who took over 30 mins. She was getting some measures as being on lowest centile. This freaked me out (I have a complicated preg history). I went to the Fetal Med Centre and had a scan with Prof Nicolaides (one of the most experienced fetal health specialists in the country). Took him a matter of mins (10 mins) to do my scan and tell me all was measuring normal. I imagine scans are second nature for them and they have intuition about what to look for. had the sonographer taken 10 mins, I would have been worried.

The 20 week scan is longer and more detailed. I didn't even have a 12 week scan this time and I am under consultant care. I had a scan in Monday at 14 weeks and the consultant just had quick look, measured baby and put in my notes FHH, FMS, measurement of baby and that my placenta is anterior.

They don't really need to do anything else at this stage if you're not having a specific Nuchal scan.

My 12 week scan turned out to be at 9 weeks 5 days for some reason, but the sonographer had a little look at the baby and said everything appeared to be ok as far as she could tell. She gave me a report which literally only says "single viable intrauterine pregnancy" and "fetal heartbeat present". They are the only words on the paper except my details, the EDD and the sonographer's name. However, at the 20 week scan we were there for ages and the doctor pointed out all the things he was looking at (except the sex as we didn't want to know) and then gave us a 3 page report with graphs and measurements. This was a more specialised scan at the Fetal Medicine Department of the hospital, but my sister-in-law apparently had a similar experience with her normal 20 week scan. So, what you describe sounds normal for the 12 week scan. Hope everything goes well for the rest of your pregnancy. It's great that you have such trust in your consultant.

My first scan was at 10 weeks and carried out by a registrar (well first it was attempted by a medical student who couldn't find my uterus or a baby - which was a fun few minutes!!). It was pretty short and they basically just checked I was actually pregnant, the babies heartbeat and did a basic measurement to give an indication of dates.

My 20 week anomoly scan with the sonographer went into much more depth.

Sounds like your experience wasn't totally out of the ordinary.

I had a third anomoly scan with a consultant, who didn't really tell me anything or write anything in my handheld notes, other than she couldn't see everything and was therefore giving up.

I bet she wrote a lot more in hospital notes, and I expect your's did the same. But as long as you know its ok, they don't see the need to tell you everything.

I don't know why we have to bother with so many pages for notes, seeing as they keep important stuff in the ones they have in hospital.

Hi, I have been scanned by a reputable fetal medicine specialist (consultant / obstetritian) all along my pregnancy. I am paying privately for birth. He is very thorough once it comes to answering my questions. In terms of the actual scans, they have been indeed quite quick and sometimes I worry, but he tells me that everything looks normal, so I think maybe they should be quick...?? The machine is 3/4D and it does provide better imagine than NHS (I've done NHS scans as well and wasn't impressed to be honest). Maybe you should just relax and enjoy that everything is going well this time! If you have Prof Eric Jauniaux at UCH, he is really superb and you should trust him. Hope things go well for you.

I have prof Pranav Pandya, I really love him and trust him wholeheartedly. think I'm just shellshocked by good news.
:o

Congratulations on your good news sarahmia. I think like others have said, a consultant can quickly see what is obviously 'normal' and also what is not. When you have had traumatic pregnancies in the past it is hard to accept good news- I know from experience! Just hug this good news and do a happy jig and try and relax..easier said than done I know. BUT it sounds all good..enjoy that feeling..