Early scans before 12 weeks a good idea

[Lhmm]

Hey

From the time you find out your pregnant up until that 12 week scan is a very long time

Is most of you waiting for nhs scam or you having a reassurance private one

Personally I wouldn't want an early scan.
I had to have one at 7 weeks due to spotting. Everything was fine, I saw a heartbeat and was very reassured and confident. Unfortunately I miscarried the day before my 12week scan. I was devastated (unsurprisingly) but even more so because I was told everything was fine and normal at 7 weeks. I wish I had never had it.
I didn't have one in my next pregnancy and felt much better.

I had one at 8 weeks. It was lovely to see a little baby with a heartbeat, but I was still terrified that something would go wrong before 12 weeks. At the time I was really suffering with sickness so it was nice to see that it wasn’t all for nothing.

I think they're pretty pointless tbh. Things looking ok at 8 weeks does not mean the pregnancy will still be ok at 12 weeks. I think 12 weeks is the right time for a first scan. So much can and does happen before then.

Save your money.
I had a scan at 8 weeks as I had no pregnancy symptoms whatsoever. Let my guard down and told 1 or 2 people that I was pregnant.
Then went on to miscarry at 11 weeks.
It was hard enough to love though, but don’t particularly enjoy telling people

I’m another one who saw a heartbeat at 7 weeks but still miscarried just before my 12 week scan.

A scan is just a snapshot of that exact moment - it’s a false reassurance but there’s no guarantee that things will work out.

Personally I found it reassuring. I’ve been crippled with anxiety this pregnant as my last one ended in a mmc where I found at at 12 week scan. Because of this and the fact I was spotting during week 6/6 ,and had no symptoms which made me worry even more, with an open mind I booked an 8 week reassurance scan. It helped at the time ❤️ Got with your gut feeling xx

They don’t always give reassurance.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/pregnancy/3553626-Sonographer-said-baby-s-bowels-were-on-the-outside

I wish I hadn’t had an early scan because I will be forever mourning DCs twin. Two babies seen on early scan, both the same size with strong healthy heartbeats, only one baby left when I finally had my scan. I spent the whole rest of my pregnancy terrified my remaining baby was going to die too and feel endless sadness that DC doesn’t have their twin.

I had 3 early scans, in my experience they were worth every penny. I previously had an mmc picked up at 12w. The worst thing for me was knowing I'd be carrying around the non visible pregnancy for 5 weeks. During the second pregnancy I was a nervous wreck, hence the extra scans, they helped me immeasurably. They aren't for everybody, you need to weigh up what it's worth to you and know that while reassuring, they can't predict if something will go wrong later - Though my midwife did say the most common times for mc are 6 and 8 weeks.

@Bringbackthestripes I’m so sorry about the loss of one of your twins. That truly is an example of where too much knowledge is a bad thing. I was glad to have extra scans for reassurance but clearly they can so often have the opposite effect.

OP, I guess it’s just up to you. I was convinced there was something wrong with my baby (I had constant bleeding until 30 weeks) and I scheduled regular between-NHS scans because I struggled to last 10-15 weeks not knowing. I didn’t have more due to the expense or perhaps I would have been tempted to have weekly extra scans.... I also liked that I could schedule them after work hours and DH, who couldn’t come to scans during the day, could come too.

I had NIPT at 10 +3 which includes a scan.

I wanted to know if there was anything wrong before 12 weeks. But I think earlier than that is not helpful.

I waited until the 12 week scan.
I know that an early scan would not have reassured me that much, as in my head I knew I could still miscarry. It would've been a waste of money for me, though I know other mums find them reassuring.

I’ve worked in a private studio and hundreds of people came through the doors continuing to have scans through out their pregnancy.

This thread is a tiny percentage of pregnancy’s that sadly never progressed but the majority do.

If you want to op go for one

The thing is, around 12 weeks is when the placenta starts to take responsibility for supporting the foetus. That is why, a large proportion of losses take place around them. A scan pre 12 weeks can reassure you that things are coming along, they still don’t guarantee the news you will have at the 12 weeks scan x

I had an early scan with both my pregnancies at 6 weeks because I only have one ovary and so my scans were purely to make sure the embryo hadn’t implanted anywhere it shouldn’t such as my Fallopian tube. These were NHS scans. The only reassurance it gave me is that the pregnancy wasn’t ectopic and my only chance of a natural conception would not be taken away! I was not reassured at all about the viability of the pregnancy and still waited until the 12 week scan before telling people. It is a very personal thing. For some people they will provide reassurance but I wouldn’t have paid to have one otherwise.

I had a scan for suspected ectopic at about 6 weeks. Obviously, it was very reassuring indeed to see that there was nothing growing in the wrong place. It was also reassuring that there seemed to be a heartbeat (although it wasn’t pointed out as such - just that the baby was the bit which was flickering).

I think that when you see a heartbeat there’s about a 90% chance of not miscarrying, which certainly isn’t a promise of success, but it’s a nice indication that things might be OK.

I think it’s very much down to personal choice. A scan can only give actual reassurance for a day or so, in my experience (although I was slightly worried about dying of a ruptured ectopic in a foreign country, so for that it reassured me completely!), but it might be that seeing a heartbeat makes things feel a bit better for you.

(And yes, this whole pregnancy I’ve been worried that the baby’s just going to die. The scans haven’t made me stop worrying - just given me reassurance that there’s nothing obviously wrong at the points when research has shown that it’s a good time to scan.)

1/3 of pregnancies end in miscarriage. I’d hardly call that a tiny percentage

We had one at eight weeks and I’m glad that we did. If it had been bad news, I would have preferred to find out in a private setting. I knew there were no guarantees going into the NHS scan, so I didn’t have the mindset that everything was safe.

I didn’t have many symptoms and couldn’t stand the thought of waiting months to find out there was nothing there.

IVF clinics mandate them because spotting a problem early can sometimes save your life (or at least your fertility). There may even be an early pregnancy unit in your local hospital that could offer you an early scan if you meet certain criteria.

For me, an early scan (and I had three...) was helpful firstly because I struggled to believe that I actually was pregnant and secondly because I can't think of anything worse than not knowing the baby had died as soon as possible. Obviously a heartbeat at 8 weeks (which is, I think, a good time) doesn't mean that you'll get to 12 weeks and be fine but you do have pretty good odds at that stage. I think it's also important to go to a reputable company - the one I used had NHS consultant sonographers rather than just ultrasound techs.

Scans don't reassure though. Due to ivf and previous ectopic and higher chance of problems I had scans at 6, 8, 12, 12, 13, 14, 14, 15 and 16 weeks. Had a termination for medical reasons at 18 weeks.

Every scan reassured me for about an afternoon. That's it.

Oh I forgot to include the 10 week scan in that list...

No I think they create unnecessary stress. Best thing you can do in early pregnancy is eat sensibly, take your folic acid and just get on with your normal life as much as possible.

I really believe that these things create and feed anxiety.

I had a scans at 7 weeks with my pregnancies after a MMC where it stopped growing at 5 weeks but we didn't find out until my 12w scan. It was reassuring for me. Statistically less likely to miscarry after seeing a strong heartbeat as some (like the MMC) wouldn't have one ever.

Very personal decision.

Similar to a previous poster I had an MMC at 12 weeks so this time around (plus not being sure of my dates due to an early miscarriage in Feb) I am having an early scan.

I appreciate nothing is certain but by around 7-8 weeks a strong heartbeat is a good indicator, and the miscarriage rate drops to under 10% (or much less, depending on what you read/how unlucky you want to feel). Good luck OP.

Once you’ve seen a heartbeat the chance of miscarriage goes right down, so I don’t think they are pointless.
With my MMC I was so glad I’d had a scan, I wouldn’t have known until almost 12 weeks otherwise when I began finally bleeding naturally.
I didn’t take anything for granted just because I’d had early scans but I am very glad I had them. With this pregnancy because it followed MCs I was quietly hopeful going into 12 weeks whereas if I hadn’t have had early scans I would have basically assumed the worst and spent the previous 2 months quite low about it.