Hmm, talking about what I do for a living....Can't skip this thread!
Firstly, need to point out SOME people coming for scans for whatever reason, march in and grunt 'want a picture' 'want to know what it is'. Very tricky when baby has died or is size of grain of rice to try to explain to said persons that I can't answer those questions, and certainly not before I start scanning! I get the impression everyone here is able to communicate a little more than that, so that issue is probably a non-issue. Being aware that problems can be find is an important point, and others have put that really tactfully- glad they've said that much better than I could.
At 14 weeks, there are a lot of variables. Firstly, some NHS trusts have a policy of not saying. That's nothing to do with the sonographers, its the powers that be. If you are stuck with that kind of policy, write and complain.Maybe things will change.Where I work we look up to anatomy check (around 20-24 wks)- after that its only growth scans and we get 10mins to check everything we have to- not enough time to go hunting for sex. If you've got a little show off, I would be able to say, but nothave chance ot go hunting for you.
Secondly it does depend on your build. For example, my BMI is 28, I'm a little well padded around the middle, so hard to scan. I'm not having my anat scan until 22 weeks to give them a better chance of seeing things ( if you're bigger build and going for anatomy check at18 weeks don't be surprised if you get a 2nd scan to finish off!!). At the mo I don't want to find out the sex, but the more padding or muscle around the middle makes it MUCH harder to see fine detail, and sex with legs together definately counts as that.
Thirdly, the equipment makes a huge difference.We have newer/older equipement and generally newer stuff lets us see more.
The person doing your scan- if properly trained ( I won't get on my soap-box on this one) shouldn't make any difference. A trainee should be adequately supervised by an experienced sonographer, so it shouldn't make any diffference, except your scan may take longer and everything could be double- scanned, making extra sure they agree on the findings.
Fourthly, bubs position has a huge influence. If its hiding, you've not got much of a chance.
Where I work we don't audit our findings of sex- its an extra, and we're trying to keep up with audits of the parts of the scan medically important. But we do know we get it wrong sometimes (I usually ask folk to let us know if we get it right but only got feedback about once in the last 5 yrs!).
So, 14 weeks, ask if you want to try to find out, please don't take it as a final answer.If you have a later scan, you can ask for a 2nd opinion, but what would you do if you get the other answer?
I had a lady tell me bub was male from a blood test (nobody in the clinic had heard of any reliable test, think she found it on the net) and asked me to check for her. I thought it was female and she was extremely upset- I could only tell her what I thought.
Also friend of a friend asked at every scan, and got told same thing at every scan, until the day before her section when we said the opposite- she was gutted, not becuase she had wanted one in particular, but she had a mental image of her baby and we took that away from her.
Good luck with finding out what you want to know, and hope all works out ok. Sorry, can't seem to write short messages!!
mumofk