what happens at 20 week scan

[surfmama]

Hello mumsers. I know we get a scan...but do they tell you imediately if they find something wrong, is it just the scanner lady in the room, does she talk you through what they find? If they find something odd do they tell you right away or call someone else in? I'm feeling really anxious as I have had an odd feeling in my rear area since about 4 weeks and am hoping everything is in the right place!

At mine there has just been the scan midwife (not a sonographer here) and perhaps a student.

She then told me exactly what she was looking for at each point, and told me what she saw (eg if that was what she would hope to see) and took her time in order to make sure that she definitely could see all the things she wanted to see.

What do you mean 'an odd feeling in your rear area'? I don't think that at 4 weeks anything would have been big enough to cause a strange feeling there, and anything big enough to have caused an odd feeling would have shown up on the 12 week scan, surely? Have you mentioned the strange feeling to your MW?

The sonography will take measurements of baby...might be able to tell the sex & just have a general look at how baby is doing. Easier said than done I know...but try not to worry. Sure everything will be fine.

hi fliss thanks for your reply. Yes it's an odd one. might be a colon thing, used to get ibs when i was a teen (20 years ago!) did mention it and they said didn't think it was pregnancy related. it just feels weird and when i walk I am aware that something is moving around in rectum area... it could be ligaments I guess am quite skinny (well not really skinny but size 10) so maybe just a bit too aware of body. But went to yoga today and whilst in cat it felt horrible in my bum area. such an odd feeling.

thaks wifey. my nephew has a cleft and I know my sister found out at 20 weeks scan but i forgot to ask if they told her straight away...

can't wait really. Funny when I think of the panics I had in the first 12 weeks I have a new set of panics now. bloody neurotic i say.

They will tell you there and then if anything is wrong however may also ask for a second opinion. I'm sure everything will be fine. Keep an eye out for the thigh bone it was amazin seeing this perfectly formed little bone on my scan don't know why but i found it amazing it was so perfect!

arrr kiki that is so sweet i love little bones and massaged both my nephews from babies till about 8. taught then all their little bones. can't remember them now, still can massage them though!

It may depend on how experienced the person doing the scan is.

I had the midwife doing the scan call the senior midwife in for a second opinion on my last scan with DS - she thought DS had not grown since his last scan so wanted the more experienced midwife to check. (And she was wrong - DS surprised us by turning up the next day, 1 lb heavier than the midwife had estimated!)

If it's anything like mine, then you'll get to see all sorts of things - they check the blood flow in and out of the placenta (as well as the current position of the placenta), the blood flow round the heart (these show up as blue and red on the screen) and check the valves are opening and closing correctly. They check the spine, kidneys, stomach and look for different things in the brain, and they check the mouth. They have a look to see if there are four limbs.

I don't think they would keep you waiting to tell you something was causing concern, it might just be a case of they pop out to get someone else to take a second look at something and then let you know what they're looking at. Some places show you the entire scan, some turn the screen away while they do it and then show you baby at the end.

Once the worry from the 20 week scan goes, then a whole new set appear. And when they go...something else comes into your head. Welcome to parenthood!

We were told there and then our baby had a cleft, and the sonographer got someone else in to double check.

I just had the sonographer in at mine, told everything was fine and went home happy. Then got a call the next day at work asking me when was the soonest I could go in. Turns out they had passed my file to the consultant and he had me come in after he had looked through it and seen a problem x

There are some things, like the position of the placenta, blood flow through the heart etc that I think they can see straight away is OK, and then the bone measurements etc they combine into a calculation at the end. You could probably ask them how they're going to give you the results or even ask them to do it in a certain way. I've got a history of recurrent MC so I anticipate disaster at each scan: luckily I've had the same sonographer each time since then so she first looks for the two heartbeats and makes sure nothing catastrophic's happened, tells me, then I open my eyes and she carries on with the scan.

oh thanks so much ladies, i feel much calmer now. still can't wait!