What happens at the 20 week scan?

[BumpNGrind]

Hi, I'm trying to find out a bit more about the 20 week scan so I know what to expect. How long does it take? Do you usually have more blood tests? What are they specifically looking for?

they Check to make sure the baby is healthy. no bloods for me and the scan took around 20 minutes. very in depth- they check heart chambers ect x

They check bones, spine, heart, kidney, brain etc via ultrasound to make sure everything is developing properly. Also check for things like cleft pallet and cystic fibrosis. It's pretty amazing what they can do!

Not sure how long mine took, maybe about 15 mins. No bloods or midwife, just the scan. They check the baby over head to toe, making sure all the organs look OK. Mine mentioned the brain, eye sockets, lips, chin, spine, heart chambers, bladder, kidneys, arms and legs. She also measured head size and leg length to check growth. She explained each thing she was looking for, then there was a silent pause while she had a good look before saying it was fine and pointing out what she could see. She also told me the gender after I asked.

It's called the anomaly scan because they do exactly that, look for any anomalies.

It's also the time you can find out the gender if you wish to and if the hospital offer that. We didn't and made sure the sonographer knew that they know where not to aim!

Both my scans took 30 minutes.

No bloods.

As others have said they do quite a 'technical' scan, going through a check list and basically checking your baby is complete. You get a print out of the stats at the end and can pay for a photo.
It's slightly serious in tone because in 2% of cases they find a problem (but even in most cases of these, they are things to be aware of and plan for not life-ending e.g. hair lip, shortened limb. In a tiny number of cases there is very grave news hence they take the serious tone.

The 20 week scan is like others said a technical scan checking everything is order. Mine took 20-30 minutes and the sonographer spent a long time getting heart views of the 4 main pumping chambers of the heart and the associated vascularature ( these are new views which my hospital and many others are now doing) - they check the circumference of the head and abdomen as well as femur length as indicators of fetal growth. You can find out gender most of the time, but I am aware of areas where is a ban on saying.

As Squizita said- they're very serious, or at least mine was. The sonographer got me very worried by spending 20 minutes looking around with a very intense look on her face. I felt sure that something was wrong 'till she turned around with a big smile and said "every thing's fine". They do need to concentrate and take lots of measurements. Mine then went on to give me a "tour" of my uterus. Here's a kidney, here's a heart and finally, here's a willy!!

Ours told us she was going to look serious as she was concentrating. But she also talked to us about everything she was looking at, it was fascinating.

Mine was very detailed and longer than average (wiggly baby). They check everything and measure lots of things. The list is huge - the brain, spine, limbs, eyes, palate, nasal bone, heart chambers, kidneys, liver, placenta function. My sonographer was lovely and pointed out each thing she was checking so we could follow along. The level of detail really is quite amazing.

Mine picked up an issue with the placenta, so I will have another scan at 28 weeks.