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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

Confusing private scan experience - advice?

29 replies

90snostalgia2020 · 30/12/2020 19:42

Hi ladies - hoping you might be able to share some wisdom. I had a private scan yesterday at 7 weeks. Two miscarriages this year so was keen to know where I stood as early as possible. He did an abdominal scan first - saw the heartbeat, said everything looked great, congratulated me. I was beyond relieved. He said there was no need for an internal scan but could have one if I wanted - which I did. This showed that there was no heartbeat - and that the size was closer to 5/6 weeks. He said he must’ve heard my heartbeat in the first scan. I was visibly upset and confused - he told me to calm down and that everything would be fine, that it was my fault for not waiting longer to get pregnant after the last miscarriage and my dates must be wrong. I’m really upset and annoyed I didn’t speak up for myself. I was prepared to hear bad news if it went that way - but wasn’t prepared to have such a basic and upsetting error made. If I hadn’t asked for the internal scan we would’ve left thinking there was a heartbeat. I also don’t think it’s appropriate to say everything will be fine - from what I’ve read that’s not at all necessarily the case. My cycle is very regular and I’m sure of the dates. He didn’t caution me of any risk of miscarriage - which seems like a reasonable outcome from the measurements he put in the report. AIBU to think this was all very unprofessional? AIBU to be preparing myself emotionally for the possibility of another loss despite the doctor saying it would all be fine (based on what I’m not sure)? Thank you.

OP posts:
PegLegTrev · 31/12/2020 13:59

@WeavingWandering

At my (emergency!) early scan - I got told that abdominal scans at early stages really depends on the weight of the mum. If they don’t have much to scan through, it should work but otherwise they would do an internal.
I had an abdominal scan at 5 weeks 5 days and they saw the sac and baby. They did follow by a transvaginal scan and saw the heartbeat then.
Bleepers · 31/12/2020 14:14

@90snostalgia2020 I'm so sorry that happened, it sounds absolutely awful and you should complain. Do you mind telling me where you went? I'm trying to decide whether to go and I'd like to avoid this place like the plague.

If you'd rather not publicly name and shame then could you PM me if you have time? Thanks xx

WeavingWandering · 31/12/2020 15:45

I was in a massive snuggly jumper because I feeling a bit sorry for myself with the stress of needing a scan.... sonographer was in training and she was so relieved when the jumper came
off and I was tiny!

yarrow89 · 31/12/2020 16:05

This is such an awful experience :( I'm so sorry for you, I can only imagine how bad you must feel. I would be the same as you, the shock of that kind of unprofessional, and frankly ridiculous ("calm down"!!), response makes us delay our own response so don't feel guilty that you didn't say anything at the time. It's not going to make the experience go away, but I would definitely complain to the clinic and to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) who are currently doing an investigation into poor practices like this. More info here:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54527595

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