Can your child come in the scan with you??

[mummytogirl]

Hiya

Basically what I said in the title, does anyone know if you are allowed to take your child in the scan room with you, she's 3yrs. Just wondering if it's something you can do or I have to get childcare for? Tia xxx

But thanks for all your feedback x

Ive had to as had no option but it's not advised

My hospital is fine with children being there, there is a box of toys in the room! I understand why it could go very wrong though. Our first scan DS was 3 and we didn't tell him it was a baby they were looking at just in case. He was fairly oblivious to it all! The second one, when he knew I was pregnant, I probably wouldn't have normally taken him but we had just had HB checked and had NIPT results showing a healthy baby so it felt fairly safe.

I presumed we couldn't so got a grandparent to have 11 month old DS but they had to let us down the day before so I rang to ask and they said you are welcome to bring children as long as they are yours, I did manage to sort something else though as preferred not to take him. St Marys Manchester

As a mum my advice would be it depends which scan it is. In my first pregnancy my 20 week scan was very traumatic ending in urgent foetal medicine referral to a tertiary centre, there was no way I would have wanted a toddler with me in that situation, I’d never want them to see us in the state we were in when they are too little to understand any of it, so there was no way I would take my toddler in this preganancy to any of my scans even though they said I could. If it’s just a growth scan/private check in for the fun of it scan I’m sure it would be ok if it meets their policy.

I don't think I ever have but there have been children at some of my appointments at our hospital (big city hospital) they have play equipment in all the waiting areas too. Our letter doesn't mention about children either so I'd call and ask. X

We had scans every fortnight at the fetal medicine dept with DS2.

DS1 has to have regular scans that are essentially the same as the pregnancy ultrasounds. When I was pregnant with DS2, DS1 was getting so distraught at his scans that they were planning to sedate him for them.

I was allowed to take DS1 to a scan at around 20 weeks to help him to see that scans are not frightening or anything to worry about.

I felt fairly safe as we had been told only two weeks previously that everything looked healthy with DS2. He was a ridiculously active baby, so I knew that he as tumbling about in there.

There's the bad news element as other people have said, but also it's a dark room with a weird screen and your mum lying on a bed with a stranger rubbing jelly on her belly and pressing a thing into that - lots of toddlers are weirded out by watching it.

If it's a 12 week scan I really wouldn't.
We're having dc3. I very nearly took out 5yo with us to our 12 week scan this time. The only reason I didn't was because he said he would rather stay with nana.
Turns out it was the best decision as the room filled with people quickly as they took us to a bad news room and explained to us that baby has a cystic hygroma measuring 4.4mm and may not be "compatible with life". We were referred to the hospital and heavily pressurised into an amino or termination. It was very intense and we were both distraught.

I'm not saying this in any way to scare you, it's just i have a healthy 3 & 5 yo, and I'm only 28 so the last thing we were expecting attending the 12 week scan was any complications. And it would have been so much worse had we took one or both of the kids with us x

At my hospital it was perfectly fine for me to bring my husband and children in they all had the most important bonding experience in doing so.

Depends on hospital and their policies.
We were allowed to bring DS9 to ours. Didn't for the 12 week but did when we went to find out sex. I did think long and hard and DH sat with him in waiting room while checks were done and then he was brought in to find out if he was having a baby brother or sister The midwife was brilliant with him and showed him a quick view of face/head/legs/arms/bum etc and explained a bit about what she had been looking for (chambers of heart etc) He was over the moon.

Just thought I would add that I had bad news at 2 scans that I brought my dc to. One was a missed miscarriage discovered at the dating scan and one was a problem picked up at the anomaly scan. It wasn't ideal but it wasn't terrible either. Dc were absolutely fine. Eldest was 5 and vaguely remembers but didn't find it upsetting. He coped better than me when we found out his younger brother had significant disabilities actually.

My 5 year old would have been absolutely distraught if a miscarriage was discovered at a scan so that will depend on the child.

I’ve got my dating scan tomorrow and will have to bring DD with me. I have had previous bad news at scans so I don’t want to go without DH and he’s literally the only person I have that can look after DD. I’ll mention it when we get there and I am expecting them to have to wait in the waiting room, but I’d at least know they were there if I happen to get bad news. It’s not ideal as I’d like DH there all the way through, but if it’s the only way I can make it work then so be it! My letter doesn’t say no children but does say that they don’t have the staff available to look after them, so I figure so long as I’m not expecting them to look after a 10 month old then there’s no reason to refuse her being there so long as she isn’t disruptive!

I can understand what people are saying, I've had previous scans, and baby has been fine throughout, this will be my 20 week scan, I'm not to sure I'm going to have a option of a baby sitter unfortunately so I may have no choice but to have to bring her, I will see tho, she is 3 so won't really understand too much, but I can understand what people have their own concerns and personal situations that has happened. No one would ever put me off, however it's good to hear views, which was why I asked as I never done this before when it comes to having a second child. X

We left 4yo DS at home for 12 week scan, but we took him to the 20 week scan. It made it more real to him to see the baby. The hospital letter said not to take him but they didn’t say anything when we turned up with him and there were other people in the waiting room with children x

The hospital letter said not to take him but they didn’t say anything when we turned up with him

Why would you take him when it explicitly said not to? They say it because it makes their job harder.