Late booking in appointment…Quite worried

[BlackKittyMama]

Hello, new to MN so please excuse my vocab!

I am currently 11+0 (FTM, so no experience to go from) and I’m quite worried about the situation I’m in, but I’m wondering whether it’s normal?

I referred myself to the community midwife team as soon as I had my BFP at 6+0 and I did not hear from them, but I wasn’t concerned as it was early days.

During week 8 I had a bleed and was referred to the EPU at my local hospital, had tests and a scan at 9+1 which showed I have a cervical ectropion, but baby was doing well and looking healthy and exactly the right size, but it was made clear to me that this was not a “dating scan” The sonographer told me I needed to chase my midwife for the booking in appt as I need to be scanned by 14 weeks if I want the screening tests.

At 10 weeks I chased them, and was told that basically I need to wait as there are many women ahead of me. I understand that services are stretched and they can only do what they can do (I’m a nurse myself so I get it) but I’ve now received my appt for booking in which I will be 13+1.

On the letter, it says that the scan referral will be sent during the appt and I can expect to wait up to 3 weeks from then to receive a dating scan appt. This means that it’s likely my scan will be way past 14 weeks, and I may not be offered the screening tests?

Is this normal? I’m quite worried that I will miss out and as you can imagine I’m also anxious to find out whether baby is okay after my early scare. Some words of experience/ reassurance would be much appreciated.

I'm not in the UK so can't advise on much of that, but if you were considering the NIPT anyway then you could get that out of the way, I'm not sure from which week it's possible. Just book that privately. It's the blood test where they analyse fragments of fetal DNA from your blood to check for the trisomies. Which is essentially what the combined screening does, but the NIPT can be much more exact.

And of course, you could also have a private scan to give yourself reassurance in a few weeks.

Not ideal perhaps but there are other screening tests they can do later (I turned up thinking I was 12 weeks and turned out to be 20 weeks and we were offered a different option). I would chase though because I suspect they’d like to get you in.

Thanks for your reply.
Unfortunately the NIPT test is very expensive to get privately in the UK and I can’t afford it. You can get in from the NHS I believe if your screening gives a high risk indicator, I’m not sure if that’s from the blood test alone or if the scan result is needed too?

That’s reassuring to know, thank you. That must have been a shock for you! But a nice surprise, too. I have already chased and they know how far along I am but they’ve just said I need to wait.

If you miss the screening window for the combined test they will offer you a blood test instead (which is actually more accurate). So try not to worry OP.