Incompetent cervix help

[Starlive23]

God, where to start. I am 22 weeks pregnant and went for a private scan.
The lady doing the scan said my cervix was short and funneling and that it was likely I would go into labour very soon and told me to go to hospital, which I did.
At the hospital they scanned me and said cervix looked fine and not to trust people ate scans as they are not regulated properly etc
Got out of hospital very relieved to the last from private scan ringing me saying she was really worried they had not scanned me correctly and that she wasnt going to be able to sleep tonight with worry as I'd not been scanned correctly at hospital which can make cervix look substantially less worrying, and that she was worried I wouldn't make it passed the end of the week and I could lose the pregnancy.

I cant work out how two people have come fo such different conclusions, I want to trust hospital but the lady from private a a was so absolutely genuinely worried I just dont know how to feel about it. I am really terrified hospital have got it wrong and this lady is right ans I'm going to lose the baby.

God I'm just so worried does anyone have any advice at all?

Thank you @screwcorona I'm (probably naievely) still clinging on to the possibility that the original scan was wrong.

I really had to push for this, the doctor I saw yesterday was quite quick to dismiss me and I found it hard to explain but I've pushed through this far and I will push as much as I can until I have answers.

I had to remind the doctor yesterday that if there was a mistake it would be my family and my heart that was broken, not his and he did eventually give me the referral I wanted.

I didn't expect to have to fight so much to get it.

On way to see specialist. Bag packed in case I need to stay in. Fingers crossed and nervous as can be, but will at least have some answers today hopefully.

Good luck x

Oh god how scary. I hope you made progress this morning and obviously praying the original scan was somehow wrong or else you are now getting the stitch you need it f it was correct xx

Good luck! Hope it all goes well

Good luck hope today's go ok xx

Well it's good news! Had an internal scan at nearby university hospital. Had a professor do a transvaginal scan on me, he assured me that there was no funnelling and cervical length was 3.5 which he said was fine.

Have booked follow up scan for next week to make sure it's not getting shorter but seemed very confident with today and said it was possible the lady from private scan wasn't as experienced in cervical scans as she had made out.

Either way to say i am relieved is an understatement. After I have my follow up scan I will go onto consultant care anyway due to me having kidney problems so I'm hoping it anything is bad, it would get picked up.

I could sleep for a week!

Oh what good news to hear, so glad it was all ok and they r goona do another check in a weeks time, such a good outcome XX so pleased for u

@boymum88 thank you so much, it was your reply that made me go back to hospital so I can't thank you enough.

Very relieved to hear your news

Both that everything is fine with your cervix and that you saw a specialist in good time to check you out.

Hoping that the rest of your pregnancy is uneventful

So happy for you. Definitly worth pushing for this, youd have never slept otherwise.

Glad it’s all ok. Seems to be lots of stories lately of people being told stuff at private scans that causes lots of anxiety then turns out to be wrong. I hope you will make a complaint.

So glad all is ok!! X

@Darkstar I did think about complaint, but ultimately I'd rather they flagged up something they werent sure about, even though on this occasion it was really far too aggressive in my opinion. I will never go for a private scan again though!

Thanks so much for all your support over the last few days, I can promise you its kept me strong and helped keep me from cracking up.

Great news OP. Delighted for you. Did you show them the photos and did they comment on them?

Yes showed them the pics, they said they were bad quality and there was no actual measurements either. I'm not sure how they ended up looking so different but these today were consistent with drs scan too so I will have to trust its correct and first ones were mistake.
Apparently it's common to have things flagged up at private scans which arent always correct.

How did ur follow up go ?

Just read theough this thread, I’m glad everything worked out for you OP! Seriously though I would think about a complaint. I work in this area and the behaviour of the initial sonographer is just mind blowing, and incorrect. Of course it’s preferable that they flag any issue but if they’re going to diagnose you with a short cervix they need to do a transvaginal scan, with an empty bladder, and take a measurement. The presence of funnelling has no meaning independent of the closed length so she shouldn’t be scaring you so badly because of that. Also even with a short cervix, most women will go on to deliver at term - It only rarely would lead to loss of the baby (tho I don’t want to minimise the importance of detecting and treating it if it is short). I just can’t believe she created so much anxiety for you without being anywhere near correct. She shouldn’t even be looking at cervical length if she doesn’t know what it means. I think some feedback to say how poorly it was handled may improve things for someone in future.
Also sorry to read it wasn’t handled very well for you at the hospital either. So much unecessary stress for you :(
Again glad you’re ok.

@TenThousandSpoons0 I had my incompetent cervix noticed at my 20 week scan - something which they do not check unless you have any history. It was only noticed because baby was wiggling in the wrong position for checks. Every time I have spoken to a midwife/consultant they have said how extremely lucky I was that they have a look at the cervix which was noticed because of the initial slight funnelling (no measurements etc were taken until I got to see the consultant). I ended up with an emergency cerclage.

Completely my own opinion but I would much rather something which looked a bit odd be spotted and then checked on, if everything is fine then for it to be dismissed by a consultant. I don't think it would be wise to complain about something inducing a short period of anxiety which is worth it to find out all is well afterwards instead of suffering worse from a potential late miscarriage.

I would hope any potential issues whether they end up issues or not would be flagged by a private or NHS scan and the monographer would not be afraid to mention it because of having complaints.

*sonographer

I agree with @TenThousandSpoons0. Because of this woman’s incompetence, the OP suffered severe anxiety that she was about to lose her baby and she ended up having two urgent NHS scan appointments, one with a professor, that could have been given to other patients in need. The sonographer could have said that she wasn’t sure and needed a second opinion but instead she chose to scare the OP silly and waste precious NHS resources.

If an NHS sonographer had done this everybody would be telling the OP to make a complaint (and the OP even mentioned putting a complaint in against the NHS when she thought they were wrong).

This is not the first time we’ve heard stories like this about private scans on this forum. OP please at the very least feed this back to the scan company so it doesn’t happen to someone else.

Hello, sorry just to say my follow up isn't till 30th December so will let you how I get on...although I'm feeling hopeful as looking at the consultant online they appear to be quite well revered in this field so I'm hopeful that it was the first scan lady's mistake and not the subsequent scan!

Just to say follow up went really well, the consultant said he thought the initial scan was a mistake and that I was completely within the normal range, in fact that it looked better than average (4.9) and that I was fine to be transferred back to midwife led care as I'm still low risk.

Such a relief! Thank you to everyone everyone who commented and took time to offer advice, it was a really scary few weeks and I absolutely cannot imagine how much worse it would have been if the first scan was accurate.