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Pregnancy

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

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Original poster

20 week scan query

18 replies

FRowlands · 06/07/2011 18:07

Hi. Just been for 20week scan and a bit confused. After reading forums and talking to othe people I know they said the scan take about 40 mins. That the sonographer looks at everything 3 times. At my scan I was in for 10 mins (ichecked the clock) and she looked at everything once. My mw told me I'd have extra checks too due to a med condition. This didn't happen and when I asked she said it was against protocol!! Very confused about whether the scan I had was as thorough as it was meant to be!!

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BooBooGlass · 06/07/2011 18:08

10 minutes is about standard I would say. Is your medical condition inyour notes?

Original poster

FRowlands · 06/07/2011 18:13

Yes it is!

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wigglesrock · 06/07/2011 18:13

Mine was about 10 mins or so (have had 3dds) I think they put 40 minutes down incase the baby is being exceptionally unco-operative, and you need to have a bit of a walk/drink/jump up and down. The medical condition didn't have anything to do with the gender of the baby did it? Know my hospital used the phrase "against protocol" for discussing gender.

Original poster

FRowlands · 06/07/2011 18:29

No, we didn't want to know the sex anyway. Thanks for replies. I just needed some reassurance that they'd checked what they were meant to in such a short time! I'm a paranoid first timer as u can tell!!

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Pastabee · 06/07/2011 20:35

I'm sure 40 minutes is too long. I was in mine for 30 minutes because the baby was in the wrong position. In that time they had me jumping about and chewing ice and eventually made me an appointment to come back in a few weeks as not everything could be checked.

I got the impression I was there for an extremely long time because of the problems with LO's position so I'd guess 10-15 minutes is normal.

PrincessJenga · 06/07/2011 21:59

Mine was about 10 mins too. She did go through everything very thoroughly though and was talking the whole time, explaining which bits of the baby she could see and checking off that everything was fine, showing DP different parts of the screen so he knew what she was talking about, etc. Do you have your pregnancy notes? I'm pretty sure there's a note in there about the main organs etc.

Sumi76 · 06/07/2011 22:14

Mine was 15 mins. They say 40 for a safe side if baby is not in the optimium position to check for everything. So dont worry :)

Catsycat · 06/07/2011 22:21

Mine were both pretty short too. I'd say about 15 minutes with DD2, and it probably took a couple of minutes longer as we asked to know the gender, so she tried to get a good view of the relevant bits.... DD1 was possibly slightly longer, but she was in an awkward position and there was much wriggling and prodding to be able to see all the bits they need to check! Definitely neither took 40 minutes. Can't help on the medical condition, but hopefully your midwife can help with this, and book you another scan if she needs to.

babyonbord · 07/07/2011 12:47

mine was about an hour then i had a second with my consultant (they were looking for a cleft palate as i have a genetic condition that causes one, however it's on the soft palate and almost impossible to see on a scan) but maybe different hospitals have different protocals

silverangel · 07/07/2011 13:05

Was it a full anomoly scan ie did they check organs, bone strucure etc? I am having twins, and mine took an hour and a half, so even allowing for half of that its 50 mins per baby, and they were perferctly well behaved and in the right positions...10 mins seems quick.

babyonbord · 07/07/2011 13:11

I think 10 mins is quick to check everything even without looking for a cleft the sonographer spent about 45 mins checking everything else and only had a 15 minute quick look for a cleft as she was aware my consultant wanted to have a proper look himself at a later appointment

babyonbord · 07/07/2011 13:11

(even my dating scan at 14 weeks was about half an hour)

ksaunders · 07/07/2011 14:27

With my ds my scan took only about 10-15 mins to actually do, although I went in twice cos he wouldn't budge from his awkward position at first so I went out while the sonographer did someone else then went back in after jiggling around the waiting area lol. A copy of the details was added to my file (the one I had to carry with me to all my appts etc), so you should be able to see for yourself. My sonographer showed me and OH 2 arms, 2 legs, head measurement, length measurement, heartbeat etc so pretty thorough but still didn't take long as I said.
If I'm in for 40 mins this time round I think I'd worry there might be something wrong!

Cattleprod · 07/07/2011 15:49

babyonbord - were they able to check the palate for clefts? I had a special cleft check too as I have a cleft lip, and they were able to check the lip for clefts (zoomed right in on the mouth, looked quite freaky on the screen!) and said they don't check the palate as it is extremely rare to get a palate cleft without a lip cleft.

I think the whole scan took about 20-30 minutes. Seemed very thorough.

Original poster

FRowlands · 07/07/2011 17:47

I was on for 10 mins and baby was in an awkward position so I was sent away to walk for 10 mins to try and move it. When I came back it hadn't moved. She tried for 5 mins to get to what she needed to. Just felt very quick to me and couldn't believe she could have really checked everything that quickly! Hopefully when I go back again they'll be more thorough

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Fluter · 07/07/2011 18:11

I was told by the sonographer that 25 minutes for a singleton was normal, but that twins wouldn't take 50. I think we were in there for about 40, and that included chasing one of the twins around because they wouldn't stay still (went from transverse to breech during the scan!), and also going back 3 or 4 times to double check that one twin really did have talipes and wasn't just holding their foot in an awkward position. I guess the length of time can be down to the baby's position, the equipment being used, and the sonographer's experience, even before you get into them wanting to double check their work (won't necessarily tell you if they're rechecking something - we didn't know about the repeated foot checks until the end), or investigating any potential problems. I suspect that everyone is different and you can't compare one person's experience to another's. :)

CrazyAlien06 · 07/07/2011 18:26

Mine took about 45 mins but I am part of a research project so they took loads more measurements and gave us 17 photos lol.
Got my next one at 28wks ( next week) really interested to see how long this one is as not a normal routine appt! Im sure it was all fine and that the baby was just in the perfect position for everything to be seen:)

KaraJS · 07/07/2011 20:48

10- 15 mins doesn't take long at all, try not to worry!

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