Early scan or not to bother?

[Lalalul]

hello all! I’m really on the fence about getting an early scan. Im currently 8 weeks and these 4 weeks since finding out have been the slowest of my life, and full of excitement mixed with worry. I see lots of people having early scans, seeing a little heartbeat and having any worries squashed. Of course I have seen others receiving heartbreaking news. DH doesn’t want to do an early scan, doesn’t see the point, it’s £80 and our 12 week scan is booked for 30th Jan. it just doesn’t feel real to me without seeing the bean. This will be our first.

interested to hear from those who have and haven’t booked one, and if you are happy with the route you took, had any regrets? Thank you

I don’t see the point. What’s going to happen will happen regardless. A lot of those scans aren’t done by medical professionals.

It was really worth it for me.
It helped me process that I was actually pregnant as I couldn't believe it until I had seen it.

What do you think women in our grandparents' generation did to "process" that they were actually pregnant?

I remember my auntie (now dead) telling me that in her day (she was born in 1915) you just waited till you'd missed three periods, then went and told your doctor you were pregnant.

Much easier in some ways.....................

The stats dont' mean much on an individual level. I've had pregnancies with perfect scans at 8 and 10 and even 12 weeks that were over by 16 weeks.

I think it's pointless. You will either stay pregnant or you won't. The scan won't tell you which.

What people done in the past is totally irrelevant now.

I had scans at 6 weeks and 9 weeks with both mine on the NHS due to bleeding.

Personally I think early scans without a medical reason are pointless. I see so many posts on here from women who become anxious after because their dates don't match up. Either that or they feel reassured for a day and then start to worry again.

2nd pregnancy, no early scans, no regrets.

As long as I didn’t have any symptoms of mmc, I assumed everything was fine, and it was.

indeed it doesn’t feel real until you see them on scan and it’s a bit of a wait, but I distracted myself and waited.

I paid for private blood genetic test (nipt or harmony as it’s called), that’s expensive so saved the money for that instead of a scan, as you get the scan anyway. This test also gives you the sex of the baby and I had it the day of my 12 week nhs scan (they need a proof to how far advanced you are, they can do it after 10 weeks, they accept the nhs scan as proof). So it was nice to find out at 13 weeks that the babies were without issues plus their sex.

I chose to have a private scan at what should have been 9 weeks and also had a rescan at 10 weeks. Whilst for me it was bad news (a suspected missed miscarriage), it means I am able to get the ball rolling sooner with the NHS to either get medical or surgical management.

it would of broke my heart even more to wait until 12 weeks to find out it stopped developing at 6 weeks, so I have no regrets whatsoever.

I also had no date given for my NHS 12 week scan so the anxiousness around that also contributed to me wanting an early scan. I was told I might not get the letter in the post until the week of the scan! But I think this depends on your local area

I did a lot of research into the ultrasound centre I used and chose the best in my area which helped, as they were able to answer all of my questions and provide guidance going forward

for all the women who had the embryo stopped developing at 6 or 8 weeks, wouldn’t you have known by 12 weeks anyway? By the body starting a mc by then? I think that’s what happens?

and then if a 10 weeks scan is ok, you still don’t know if it will still be ok at 12, high chances to be but not 100%.

I have a relative that told family about pregnancies 3 times after they had the 12 week scan and ended up in mc a week after, 4 weeks after and 3rd time don’t know how much later. (They have children now)

what I’m trying to get is that a mc is a heartbreak anyway, whenever and however it comes, and reassurances from scans are short lived and can’t be 100%.

to prepare myself, I always thought a baby is a possibility during the first trimester, becoming a probability after a successful 20 week scan, but it’s an actual baby when it’s born. Found it easy to believe until the 3rd trimester when it’s very hard to contemplate not having a baby after this point.

@CristinaNov182 you can mc before 12 weeks but you also might not, there’s no guarantee that you would lose it yourself before think that’s issue!

Ok. So I've had two missed miscarriages now that were caught on early scans and saved me weeks of thinking I was still pregnant when I'm not.

I think it depends on your own personal plan for having a baby. I don't have much time left as I'm 36 and we don't get pregnant easily. Even a few weeks could make a difference towards getting back to TTC earlier.

If you're younger and time isn't a factor (and if you have no other symptoms) then there's nothing wrong with waiting til twelve weeks if that's what you'd prefer :)

@CristinaNov182 Nope, not necessarily, my body won't let them go. My baby died a week or so ago and I've still had no bleeding or anything. It was the same with the last one.

How much does.£80 mean to you.. thats a lot of baby stuff to wait just over 3 weeks.

I had a missed miscarriage recently with my second pregnancy so I'd have an early scan next time to ease anxiety. I know a nearby hospital that does them on a walk in basis for free. I wouldn't want to spend nearly £100 on it.

It’s standard medical care in other counties to have a scan at 8 weeks to confirm pregnancy in a viable location. Chance of miscarriage after is very, very low and if something has tragically gone wrong early one I’d rather know at 8 weeks than 12+. I had an 8 week scan in the US, same for SIL in France. Done by an OB though. I wouldn’t go near baby bond or similar.

I had a scan at seven weeks in my first pregnancy, saw a heartbeat. At my 12 week scan, they discovered baby’s heart had stopped at nine weeks (and no, you don’t necessarily show signs or have a spontaneous miscarriage if that’s the case - I had two weeks of expectant management and one lot of medical management and my body still didn’t let go, it took surgical management in the end).

My second pregnancy I had an early scan at 10 weeks. Ended up with a healthy baby after nine months 🤍

My current pregnancy, I had an early scan at eight weeks and am now almost 11 weeks and waiting for my NHS scan. Obviously I know that the early scan doesn’t guarantee it’ll be good news there.

I’ve always liked an early scan so that I know sooner rather than later if the pregnancy is viable and not one of unknown location, ectopic or not growing well. I’ve always been aware that it doesn’t guarantee a baby at the end but it’s one hurdle overcome in my eyes, to know that the pregnancy has started off ok. It saves another month of waiting and worry. I don’t regret the early scan in my first pregnancy and I love that I have the picture of that little bean to show that they did exist, if only for a short while. Without that, I’d have nothing.

It’s a completely personal choice and I can see why others decide not to, ultimately do whatever you feel will bring you the most peace of mind, while knowing it is just a snapshot in time.

Best of luck with your pregnancy 🤍

I've had an early NHS scan at 6 weeks after a miscarriage in my last pregnancy. If I wasn't given that scan by the NHS, I would have 100% went private, mainly to make sure that it wasn't ectopic! I paid privately for a scan at 9+6 and found it very reassuring, although I just paid £50. Again personal preference, but they definitely help me, as I would hate the thoughts of thinking I'm pregnant to finding out at 12+ that I'm not. Also, with mmc, the body sometimes doesn't recognise that the baby has died for weeks after, which is why it's called missed. My last pregnancy was a mc so I knew straight away with bleeding and cramping, but my SIL had a mmc which was found out at a routine scan and she had to get the foetus surgically removed.

I had a private scan at 9 weeks which really reassured me, I was very anxious and couldn’t wait until 12 weeks (13 by the time I actually had my NHS scan). It genuinely did reassure me a lot and once I got to 12 weeks I didn’t think about private scans again so I don’t think you necessarily keep going back for reassurance

Having not received good news at a private scan at 7 wks and told I would've carried the pregnancy probably till past 12 wks without knowing anything (lots of pregnancy symptoms) I would never wait for an nhs scan. Personally I found the loss easier to deal with having found out early on & it meant the nhs were able to medically intervene to bring the miscarriage on earlier than it would have happened.

My personal opinion through bitter experience is don’t. I had a scan after a little bit of spotting at the hospital who confirmed a heart beat and all well at 8 weeks. Two weeks later I wanted my dh to see the baby so went to a scan place ultrasound direct. There was no heartbeat and it had stopped growing at 10 and a bit weeks. The place was not geared up for bad news whatsoever. There was no advice, not even any sympathy and somehow seeing the baby on such a large screen made it much worse. I even received an email congratulating me on my baby and sending me the pictures of the scan. I took myself to hospital the next day and they said unfortunately before 12 weeks what you see one day is not necessarily what you’ll see the next day. I think the statistic about 2% chance of a miscarriage after a heartbeat is a bit optimistic. I know I’m not that unusual. When I got pregnant again, I didn’t bother with ‘reassurance’ scans. They’d only give me reassurance of that particular moment in time.

I waited for my 12 week but then had a private at 16 weeks for gender which I am glad we did, had my 20 week scan mid December and they have classed me as low risk so no more scans for me

I did with my first but wouldn't do it again. I'd just wait til the 12 week scan as it did feel like a waste. It was peace of mind at the time though. But I think as it's your first and with your reasonings, I would do it. Otherwise you'll be fretting over it.

I had a private scan at 7 weeks and I don’t regret it at all. I know it doesn’t change anything or confirm anything, but I found it very reassuring to know that there was one baby in there (twins in the family), that it had a heartbeat and it was growing in the right place.

12 weeks seemed an awfully long time to wait for me.

I had an early scan with all of my pregnancies to confirm location and for reassurance. Was lovely to confirm a HB at 6 -7 weeks and then see how much they’d grown at 12w!

I've had them previously and thought it was fine.

Since then I've seen first hand the problems that arise if the scan throws up something concerning; they take your money and run. There's nothing further they can do. A relative was advised by them to call the EPU and lie to say she'd been bleeding.

I think it depends on how you’d feel and what you’d do if it were bad news. I never had early scans because if something were to go wrong I’d have preferred it to happen in private, at home. I’d also never have chosen to have the pregnancy removed if the scan found a missed miscarriage. I’d always have wanted to wait for it to end naturally if at all possible. (And things can go wrong even after seeing a heartbeat, so I’m not sure how reassuring I’d have found it anyway.)