booking in app not until 15 weeks, '12 week scan' at 17 (ish) - is this normal?

[poddige]

am currently pregnant with my third baby, and have recently posted about having empty gestational sac (luckily everything was fine and i was a week out with my dates)

i am just over 9 weeks pregnant, and due to lack of availability i will not have a booking in appointment until i am just over 15 weeks . I asked whether my 12 week scan would still be arranged, and she advised i was unable to have one until i had my booking appointment, and it would be around 2 weeks after.

Because of this i will be going for a private scant 12 weeks to check everything is OK with baby, but, of course, many women will not be able to afford this luxury.

I know that this is not normal, but is this usual at the moment?

Def not! I'd be pushing to get seen earlier. You need your dating scan at 12-13 weeks for dating and other bits as they are most accurate then. That's my understanding anyway.

No this is no normal where I am. My GP surgery only has a midwife there half a day a week and there was no appointments for a month so I they referred me to another GP surgery which had midwives so I could have a booking in app at 6 weeks (they like to do it at 6 weeks in my area) and then had my 12 weeks scan booked at the app. If you don't have a scan until 17 weeks how are they meant to properly date you or offer you any of the screening tests which must be done by a certain date?

Definitely not normal. You need to have the 12 week scan by 13.5 weeks otherwise they can't see a particular stage of growth and a more invasive test is needed.

That's what I was told when I had to change my scan appointment because they'd got my dates wrong by a week.

Thank you. I did think would probably be detrimental in some way to have the 12 week scan later, but wasn't quite sure why.

Our GP surgery had no appointments and they referred me to the midwife office (they cover the whole area) and it's the midwives who have booked me in for November for my first appointment.

In my area (outer London), I could book my own scan online before having the booking in appointment with the midwife. Also worth checking if the GP can book a scan and nuchal bloods (if that is what they do in your area) for you.

I’d call your midwifery team and make a bit of a fuss as that’s really not on.

Not acceptable. The midwives have a duty of care and this includes ensuring you get scans etc on time. They cannot just say no. Apart from accurate dating this means you miss the opportunity to have combined screening for downs, Edwards and patau's syndrome if you wanted it. I would definitely go back.

Pretty sure the NT screening (blood test plus scan) have to be done between 11 and 14 weeks so waiting until 17 weeks is really not right!

Thank you - just needed to extra oomph to make sure i wasn't kicking up a fuss for no reason.

Will call on Monday. I presume they are totally snowed under, but did seem rather excessive to wait so long.

In my area if they are very booked up with 12-14 wk scans, the department stays open late to facilitate getting women in at the appropriate gestational stage. They can run clinics until 8pm if necessary.

Absolutely not acceptable to wait until 17 weeks. Are you in England OP?

It's unacceptable. Can you book in with the head gp at your surgery and have them push for a closer appointment?

This doesn't sound okay at all. My gp surgery didn't have any booking appts for midwife until I would've been 13 or so weeks but I was given a number to phone midwife directly and sent to an overflow clinic at the local hospital when I was 8 weeks. Got first scan & consultant appt next week at 12 weeks.

Utterly unacceptable. Call them. Make sure you tell them that you are aware the are breaching NICE guidelines on timing of the scan.

batman i'm in Yorkshire!

@notthereeileen thank you for this - i will look them up for when i call.