Private scans - Guys & St.Thomas' or any other recommendations

[VS2022]

Hi - I'm 7 weeks now. My GP said my NHS hospital might not contact me until 10 weeks and I'm keen to get some scans. Thinking about just buying a pack and saw this - guysandstthomasprivatehealthcare.co.uk/services/maternity/pregnancy-scans/#

Does anyone else have experience with Guys and St.Thomas'? Or is there anywhere else you know that does private scan packages.

This is my first and I'm 37 and feeling a bit anxious so wanting to get as many tests and scans done early.

Thank you!

Harley St places are good - The Birth Company and the other one that I can't remember the name of!

I guess it would depend on what you are looking for. A standard scan there is plenty of places that will do it privately and for less than you are currently looking at. I had a gender scan at 16weeks and had a 4d sneak peek too with pictures etc for £70.

they checked all was well with baby and then looked for gender.

Hiya,
Generally unless you have a history of MC the NHS won’t scan you until 12/13 weeks (and even then it can be a bit of a battle).

You can get a private scan from around 7 weeks for £70, which is basically a reassurance scan to check it’s developing / has a heartbeat etc, I don’t think there is much else they can do at that stage.
There are a few places in central london which are cheaper than the £200 at Guys/Tommys.
The benefit of doing it at a hospital would be that if there was a problem at that stage you could go straight to the early pregnancy unit to discuss options.

The Non-invasive harmony test (NIPT) at 10 weeks is a more advanced version of the downs / trisomy test you get with the NHS at the 12 week scan.
If you are older like me then the NHS result will basically automatically come back with a higher probability and I’ve always been pleased that I had the NIPT result which has a much higher confidence level, without having to worry about the higher probability NHS result!
You will still want to have the NHS scan at 12 as well.

I have had dating / reassurance scans at ultrasound direct near Cannon Street and NIPT/Harmony at the Foetal Medical Centre (FMC) on harley street.

Congratulations and try not to worry!!
😀

Should add, that as far as I could work out, there was no benefit from extra scans between the 12 week and 20 week NHS ones (unless you want to find out the gender).
Its not until 20 weeks that the heart develops enough for them to check what they need to and there are no additional tests or checks that you’d get done privately that aren’t performed by the NHS very thoroughly!
(I may have got this wrong!)

We had an early scan at Ultrasound direct for £45. There are locations across London. If it's just for early reassurance and you haven't had any worrying symptoms you could go to lots of places like this one. Just have a quick google for your area.

Thank you all so much. I was most keen to get the NIPT and Nuchal scans done as soon as is possible just to help with some of the anxiety.

@Albta Do you normally get Harmony and NIPT or is it one or the other? I've looked at a few places and they seem to offer them side by side so was getting confused.

I’ve been to Fetal Medical Centre a few times, it was recommended by a few friends and it was excellent.

The Harmony test is the brand name of a type of NIPT (non-invasive pre-natal test) - where they actually analyse the DNA. They seem to be used interchangeably!

I found this which may help:
www.mums.me.uk/antenatal-scans-and-private-births/non-invasive-prenatal-testing-nipt

The panorama one is quite new I think, I’ve had the Harmony one twice, I looked at the panorama one for my most recent but didn’t seem to offer much more and wasn’t done by FMU.

Are you based in London or outside? I went to a clinic near guildford that I can recommend for early scans and harmony test. Staffed with sonographers from local hospital

I know the feeling of being anxious and wanting additional scans well! I had my early scans at Ultrasound Direct, they have a number of clinics and much cheaper than private at St Thomas - for the early scans where it’s too early to see much and you just want to check heartbeat and dates you prob don’t need a qualified obstetrician but might be more worth it for later scans that check the health of the baby (we went to a specialist in Kent for a 17 week scan). Ultrasound direct give you a folder with lots of photos and videos - video clips were so nice to look back on when anxiety got the better of me.

Also really recommend the NUPT - results come back much quicker than NHS and it means if you come back high risk with NHS you already have a much more accurate test - some NHS trusts offer it if you come back high risk anyway but ours didn’t and you can have it from 10+4 (and find out gender if you want). We had the Vision test at Ultrasound direct (it’s more accurate than Harmony and UD do it for £400 which is a pretty good price in Ldn). Congratulations!

We went to the Fetal Medical Centre and they were great! We were very fortunate at the time and had the harmony test done for free as part of a research study (ten years ago).

Thank you all so much. Ultrasound direct looks great @Hrf1503 so might do the vision test there.

I had several extra private scans in both my pregnancies, and the NIPT in my second, and they all did wonders for my anxiety. I've found the chain, cheaper places really good -the person doing it will still be qualified and often will also work for the NHS.

Good luck with everything and I hope it all goes smoothly.

Hey OP, I'm due to have my baby at Guys and St Thomas and they were lovely there when I had my 12 week scan (NHS). I had a private early scan on Harley Street as it was cheaper than the Guys and Tommy's one, plus they were open on Sunday so DH could be there. I think the most important thing with any private scan is that it is a sonographer who is doing it/interpreting it - some places that I found were cheaper didn't always use sonographers.