Opinions on getting early scans?

[gimmeadoughnut123]

After 12 months of trying for a baby and one previous miscarriage, we got our BFP a week and a half ago. We are so excited and everything feels like it is going right with how my body is reacting. Sore, achy swollen boobs but no sickness yet. I have a very long cycle so according to that I'm 7.5 weeks but probably actually only about 6 weeks from conception.

I have been toying with the idea of an early scan because of the miscarriage we had - just to make sure baby is doing ok. We are torn on if we should. One part of me says yes so we can see things are ok, the other part says no for fear that things aren't ok, or if we are actually earlier on than my LMP dates then the baby might be tiny tiny with no heart beat yet and I'll be scared. Has anyone been in this position? What did you choose to do, or what would you do?

There's pros and cons for it. It depends personally how you can handle the waiting period for the 12w scan. Some people don't see anything at an early scan and go on to have a baby showing at the 12w scan and some see a baby early on and unfortunately miscarry later so it doesn't always prove anything. I had early bleeding and had an early scan because I hate not knowing one way or the other but that's how I deal with things.

I've had one both times and have been reassured by them. Although, I would wait until 8 weeks as that is when you are likely to see a heartbeat. It wouldn't have reassured me if I'd had one too early to see one, the wait for a re-scan would have been too much for me.

In my experience if your dates are wrong, you could end up having all kinds of worry by not seeing a heartbeat and not knowing if you have miscarried or not. They also only provide reassurance for the time you are there and not the days/weeks afterwards.

I hav had early scans on the NHS and they always helped me. But i had them as i've got a history of recurrent miscarriage.

I've had scans where the pregnancy went well and scans where it didn't, like a PP said it only reassures you right then but statistically once you see a HB the risk of MC goes down.

You can usually see a HB from 6-7 weeks but sometimes not to I'd aim for closer to 7 maybe even 8 if you can wait that long.

I had ivf and booked the earliest scan I could do, 6 weeks to the day. We’d had 2 embryos transferred and were dying to know if it was one or 2! We then had another at 8 weeks.

We ended up having quite a few private scans because we were utterly terrified we’d lose one or both of them, my pregnancy symptoms used to disappear for a couple of days and freak us out.

For me personally, there’s no way I could’ve waited, I needed to know one way or the other.

Hi @gimmeadoughnut123. Firstly, congratulations!

We got our BFP on Saturday morning and have had two MCs 2.5 years ago. I am utterly terrified something will go wrong, so thank every single night that we've got through another day with no bleeding.

For this reason, I will be going for an early scan. I just need to know that things are okay (hopefully they will be at the time of the scan). I know it doesn't give us any promises for the future but I will go nuts waiting for the 12 week scan. I need some kind of halfway point. I went to the GP yesterday to let her know I'm pregnant and she said she'd get me booked in for a reassurance scan. I doubt I'll get one before 6 weeks though as I don't think they can see much before then. The next two weeks will be spent on a knife edge

Frazzlerock congratulations on your BFP, hoping all goes well for you with the pregnancy. I am doing the same thing really, checking every time I go to the toilet and breathing a sigh of relief at each day that passes.

I am very tempted to go for a scan in the next week or two as I'm not sure I can wait until 12w. I think it will provide reassurance in the mean time.

Can anyone share what they saw at their early scan?

With my first pregnancy I had an early private scan at 9 weeks due to anxiety (I'd previously miscarried and somehow convinced myself I was broken and couldn't carry a pregnancy ) it was brilliant and we saw the heartbeat, which was a huge relief (I walked into the room genuinely convinced they'd tell me there was no baby!). I found it very reassuring as the odds of a successful pregnancy if there is a heartbeat at 9 weeks is very good. Obviously not guaranteed, but I found the statistics really helpful.

That said I was nervous again by the time my 12 week scan rolled around!

With this pregnancy we didn't have an early scan - partially for financial reasons, partially not really having the time - and I actually managed fine. I was definitely still nervous about something going wrong, but nowhere near as much as last time when it was not a normal level of worry, it was totally OTT.

Personally I'd be worried about having a private scan too early to see baby or heartbeat, and causing unnecessary worry. That's my only reservation on the topic really! It's a personal choice and obviously lots of women don't have them and ultimately having a private scan doesn't mean everything will automatically be OK, even if it is at the time of the scan, but IME the reassurance can be priceless!

We went for a scan at 9 weeks and it was magical, I would really recommend it.
We could see a strong heartbeat, the baby was moving around and we could clearly make out its little arms and feet. We had a previous loss and so it put my mind at ease, although it did show up a small bleed which did still play on my mind (apparently this is very common and i'm now 14 weeks and it has cleared up completely).
We decided to wait until 9 weeks as we felt it would be far enough along that it would actually reassure us and it turned out my nhs scan wasn't until this week so it would have been a really long wait otherwise!

At the 6 week scan we saw the heartbeats, at 8 weeks we saw they’d grown, at a 9.5 week scan we heard their heartbeats for the first time, and at the 12 week scan they’d become proper baby looking to us, and at 16 weeks we found out the sexes. We also did the 4d scan at 26 weeks I think, which I felt was a bit rubbish!

Like I said, we had a fair few private scans 😳

If I'd have gone for an early scan I'd have seen twins and gotten excited about that. We didn't go for one in the end and I'm pleased I didn't because at 12 weeks we were told it was a twin pregnancy but 1 twin had died around 8/9 weeks but because I didn't know it was a bit less upsetting IYSWIM. I think I'd have found it much harder if I'd bonded with the idea of twins.

I think there are pros and cons either way though and my case isn't that usual.

I wouldn’t go for early scans.

It’s not because I don’t understand the anxiety, I’ve had multiple losses including my first ever pregnancy. It means I understand the problem all too well and I understand that the scan will not offer relief from the worry for only the amount of time you are physically being scanned. For me, it would return immediately afterward, and give only more focus to my concerns.

There is also the factor of having non-medically indicated scans - for me that was a risk I wasn’t happy to take. For medical reasons, yes, and in fact I actually had lots in some of my pregnancies because there was a very good reason to do so. But for no specific reason, I wouldn’t - not because I think it is unsafe but because research is still being done into repeated exposures.

I had an early scan last week for medical reasons and whilst seeing a heartbeat has reassured me, the anxiety has returned that anything can happen during this time.

I was bang on 6 weeks. My period would have dated me at 9 weeks, so my irregular cycle messed up the dates there. If I'd have been any earlier, they wouldn't have seen anything. My Clear Blue digital was bang on with dating me in line with what the scan did, so I'd use a CBD to date you then arrange a scan at around 8 weeks based on that.

I'm sure you already know, but if the CBD says 1-2 weeks, you are 3-4 weeks.

@TokenGinger I used a CBD the day after we found out I was pregnant (so that would have been the 14th) which put me at 2 - 3 weeks, so 4 - 5 weeks pregnant. So by this weekend coming, that would put me at 6 - 7....if I've worked that out right? The doctors have me down as being coming up 8 weeks though because of my awkward cycles.

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences, it is giving me a lot to think about. I know I'll probably end up worrying after the scan still, but seeing a baby and hopefully a heart beat would really help me for the meanwhile...it's so difficult deciding what to do! I have my midwife appointment on Thursday, it's such a shame they can't just check things for you then!

@Iwantaunicorn I hope your ultrasound place gave you a loyalty card!! Haha how lovely to be able to see your baby growing though

@gimmeadoughnut123 Yep, that's right. So Sunday just gone, you'd have been 5-6, so this coming Sunday, you'll be on 6-7, so from next week, you should be able to see a good heartbeat if you book in for a scan.

I could only see a sac and a flutter inside which was the heartbeat, but it was enough to put my mind at ease that it was baking away safely.

I am wary of early scans as both my miscarriages happened after everything was shown to be fine at the 12 week scan (16 weeks) my mum offered to pay for an early scan this time round but I refused as I was convinced it would provide me with false reassurance. However,I know it provided a friend of mine with reassurance so I guess it all depends on whether you feel it would help.

Thanks all. After some thinking today, I am going to chat with my husband about possibly booking for one in the next couple of weeks. Fingers crossed it all goes well.

I went for 2... one at 6 weeks and one at just under 9 weeks.

The 6 weeks one was a 'holy crap is this real' kind of scan because it was our first month trying and I was in complete shock (previous health things made us unsure how long it would take for us to conceive).

The 9 weeks one...someone very close to me had miscarried at this stage and I was getting anxious and paranoid, so I decided to go for a scan and see if everything was still roughly as it should be.

I never, ever, ever took them to mean everything was 'fine' because you never know. You can be scanned at 5pm and have issues at 7pm. For me they were reality checks and 'progress' reports rather than reassurances - if that makes sense?

Congratulations @gimmeadoughnut123

I am nearly 7 weeks pregnant according to LMP (but I'd had a CP on my last cycle so ovulated later than usual on this cycle so like you had a slightly longer cycle), I also had an MMC at 11 weeks. I found out when I went for a private NIPT scan. Having already had a little DS and since I had some slight symptoms (I didn't have any with DS) I wasn't anticipating bad news at the scan so it came as quite a shock. Baby had passed at 8-9 weeks. For this reason I'm having a scan at 10 weeks on the basis that that scan is to check things are ok - not for anything else. I know there is still a risk that if all ok at that scan something could still go wrong but having had a MMC before I just don't want to go all the way to 12 weeks and then find out. I know it's only 2 weeks but for me I need that initial check and see scan.

My IVF clinic did a scan three weeks after my official test date (so basically 7 weeks) they said not to have it any earlier - by 7 weeks there should be a heart beat but you do need to be confident on your dates.

I then paid for s private scan at 10 weeks as I had read it you see a heart beat at 10 weeks the chance of miscarriage is then as low as 0.4%

@Newbie21 I hope all goes well for you at your scan. I think I'm in the same sort of boat - 12w is just a painfully long time to wait if you have previously miscarried. I can't stop thinking that we might get to 12w, go for the scan, to find out something isn't right. My husband and I have agreed we would like to go for an earlier scan but I do understand it only means everything would be ok at the time of the scan. I will post how it goes once we have been.

@gimmeadoughnut123 I hope all goes well for you. I'm sure it will be fine. My scan is on 11 Nov so I will let you know how I get on too.

I’m not personally a fan. I paid for two private ones last year at 6 and 8 weeks. I still went on to miscarry at 9 weeks unbeknowst to me, I found out at the 12 week scan. They only allow a snapshot and I didn’t feel like I had reached the safe zone until I was out of the first trimester anyway. With private ones the issue is the surroundings as well should you receive bad news. Private scans are all set up for happy news so walking out having received bad news would be utterly heartbreaking.

I had bleeding with DD and was sent for a scan to rule out ectopic. That was at 7+4 and all was fine, went on to have a perfectly healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby at the end of it.

With my earlier pregnancy this year, I had a scan at bang on 7 weeks yet again after bleeding, the heartbeat was there, everything looked spot on. We were congratulated and told that the chance of M/C was less than 4% now we’d seen the heartbeat. Bled again a few weeks later at approx 10 weeks accompanied by mild cramps and back pain, again, I was sent for a scan and told there was no heartbeat - baby had died around a week earlier at 9+3.

I’m currently around 8+5 and not planning on having an early scan unless I have any bleeding. Purely because of past experience I just wouldn’t feel reassured. I’m actually still quite traumatised by it all if I’m really honest. The thought of going for a scan makes me feel very panicky so I’m trying to hold off for as long as I can! I’m anticipating a date for my 12 week scan soon.