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

Can I bring 7yo to wait outside ultrasound scan?

153 replies

Meeko505 · 22/04/2024 04:07

My 7yo is throwing up and my 12 week scan is on Tuesday morning. We don't really have any childcare but I doubt she'll be able to be in school. Can we bring her and let her wait outside the scan room for us, or in the waiting area? Not sure what else to do at this stage.

OP posts:
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Revelatio · 22/04/2024 10:14

But you have childcare in the form of your partner? Why would you need to take them?

CormorantStrikesBack · 22/04/2024 10:15

Meeko505 · 22/04/2024 08:07

Thanks for the responses. Fwiw I am obviously assuming that by then she will be mostly over the bug but just not by 48hrs, and maybe it sounds dumb but I didn't realise it would be "full of" pregnant women. At the last ultrasound I had I was the only person in the waiting area and assume a small child sitting on her tablet in the corner for five minutes isn't going to spread anything to anyone. But thanks for the incredibly exaggerated replies re. bringing a sick bucket with me; I forgot how horrible the posters on Mumsnet can be.

Even if she was well it’s not appropriate. In what circumstances would you leave an unattended 7yo in a public place?

If you wouldn’t leave them in a train station or a busy cafe don’t do it in a public hospital waiting room. And it will be for longer than 5 mins. It takes around 20 mins according to the nhs website.

allthemiddlechildrenoftheworld · 22/04/2024 10:23

@Meeko505 for goodness sake, leave your partner at home with vomiting child!! you can have your scan by yourself!!

InTheRainOnATrain · 22/04/2024 10:31

I don’t think anyone is being horrible. Really, what would be horrible is bringing a potentially infectious child, who really doesn’t need to be there because you have childcare in the form of your partner, to a space that you know is going to be full of medically vulnerable people.

I know it’s disappointing, I had all my scans by myself for DS because covid. It’s shit. I really do get it but unfortunately this is just how it goes sometimes when you have 2 kids and no wider family to step in. Get used to it as it’ll be the first of many. DS was sick a couple of week’s ago so had to miss nursery, I stayed home with him and DH went on his own to DD’s school play. Of course I was gutted to miss it but you don’t take a child that is excluded from school/nursery because they’re infectious out and about with you even if they’re ’mostly over it’. It would be incredibly selfish. Consider this your first adjustment to being a family of 4!

Also even if your 7YO was in great health and it was just the school holidays you still can’t do it. If they’re too young to stay home by themselves, they’re also too young to sit by themselves in a hospital waiting room. The medical staff aren’t babysitters and it would be downright negligent to just abandon a kid of only 7 years old in a public place even just for ‘5 minutes’, which it’s unlikely to be tbh, probably more like 15. Just no.

I hope you reconsider and I hope all goes well with your scan. It may not have been what you wanted to hear but the responses you’ve received are all fair and reasonable. Even the one about the sick bucket because let’s face it, it is a possibility because she’s had a bug and better in a bucket/bag than down her, on the floor, splattering on whoever has the misfortune to be close by.

WiseDog · 22/04/2024 10:37

Yes you can I just had a scan my grandkids came daughter her partner and other daughter grandkids are 6 5 and 2 x

IsoldeWagner · 22/04/2024 10:39

WiseDog · 22/04/2024 10:37

Yes you can I just had a scan my grandkids came daughter her partner and other daughter grandkids are 6 5 and 2 x

All these people came to your scan?

patchworkpal · 22/04/2024 10:41

WhatNoRaisins · 22/04/2024 08:13

To be fair the 12 week scan is pretty basic, head, spine, 4 limbs, ok off you go. My partner just did the 20 week scan for our first baby.

Well yes...but it's not basic if there's an issue with any of those things is there! What an insensitive thing to say.

Mitsky · 22/04/2024 10:42

I was in my 12 week scan for over an hour recently, regardless of sickness that’s a long time for a 7 year old to be sat in a waiting room.

patchworkpal · 22/04/2024 10:44

WiseDog · 22/04/2024 10:37

Yes you can I just had a scan my grandkids came daughter her partner and other daughter grandkids are 6 5 and 2 x

Why did you bring so many people

WinterMorn · 22/04/2024 10:45

Soontobe60 · 22/04/2024 06:45

Maybe give the midwife a call?
”Hi midwife, I’ve got a scan tomorrow and my DD is vomiting so can’t go to school. Can someone look after her at the maternity unit whilst we go in for the scan? I’ll bring a sick bucket just in case.”

No. NHS staff are not babysitters.

notinagreatplace · 22/04/2024 10:45

WhatNoRaisins · 22/04/2024 08:13

To be fair the 12 week scan is pretty basic, head, spine, 4 limbs, ok off you go. My partner just did the 20 week scan for our first baby.

I am genuinely glad that was the case for you and I wish the OP all the best too.

For my first pregnancy, it was 5 mins with a sonographer who rushed out to get a consultant who then got a second opinion and then 30 mins waiting in the bad news room. Then to be told all about the horrific conditions that our foetus probably had and next steps.

These scans are important medical appointments and not a place for a 7 year old

Hebeegeebe · 22/04/2024 10:46

WinterMorn · 22/04/2024 10:45

No. NHS staff are not babysitters.

I’d say they wouldn’t mind as long as she brings the sick bucket, they are usually not that busy anyway.

InTheRainOnATrain · 22/04/2024 10:47

IsoldeWagner · 22/04/2024 10:39

All these people came to your scan?

Surely gotta be a pisstake post. Grandmother of 3 pregnant and son in law (amongst others) comes to the scan 🤣😂

qazxc · 22/04/2024 10:47

No, if she is too unwell for school, she is too unwell for going to the hospital with you and possibly passing on whatever bug she has.
Your options are either to get someone to mind her while you go to the appointment or reschedule.

patchworkpal · 22/04/2024 10:48

InTheRainOnATrain · 22/04/2024 10:47

Surely gotta be a pisstake post. Grandmother of 3 pregnant and son in law (amongst others) comes to the scan 🤣😂

Where'd you get son in law from?

WinterMorn · 22/04/2024 10:48

Hebeegeebe · 22/04/2024 10:46

I’d say they wouldn’t mind as long as she brings the sick bucket, they are usually not that busy anyway.

What??

Caffeineislife · 22/04/2024 10:55

Phone up, reschedule appointment. Or find someone to have her. Are there really no grandparents/ good friends/ aunts, uncles or the child's father to have her?

This is the reality of pregnancy with a second child. There are things that your DP cannot attend as you have another child. If DP attending is important to you then you need to ask grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends or pay for childcare.

You do know that waiting for a scan is not always a 5 minute job? An emergency for another woman, a complex scan for another patient, staff illness or sometimes just long delays all happen. It happened on one of my scans, a poor lady was rushed in from the EPU accompanied by her partner. Then a consultant was needed, then a second sonographer. That poor lady was in the scan room a good 40 minutes and all routine scans were delayed. You risk exposing pregnant women to your sick DC for much longer than 5 minutes.

Jimmyneutronsforehead · 22/04/2024 11:01

I wouldn't take a child who was well. What if they tell you that you've had a miscarriage? Nobody knows how they'll respond to that news until they've got that news and let me tell you this that when I had that news I would not have had the time or space to console a grieving 7 year old too.

I think it's very unwise, even when desperate for childcare.

InTheRainOnATrain · 22/04/2024 11:02

patchworkpal · 22/04/2024 10:48

Where'd you get son in law from?

‘my grand kids came daughter her partner’ I thought that was the list of who that poster brought with her but honestly who knows when it’s written so badly and there’s no punctuation 🤣

SacreBleugh · 22/04/2024 11:03

@Meeko505 you asked an idiotic question and you got the responses you deserved 🤷‍♀️

susiedaisy1912 · 22/04/2024 11:22

Meeko505 · 22/04/2024 08:07

Thanks for the responses. Fwiw I am obviously assuming that by then she will be mostly over the bug but just not by 48hrs, and maybe it sounds dumb but I didn't realise it would be "full of" pregnant women. At the last ultrasound I had I was the only person in the waiting area and assume a small child sitting on her tablet in the corner for five minutes isn't going to spread anything to anyone. But thanks for the incredibly exaggerated replies re. bringing a sick bucket with me; I forgot how horrible the posters on Mumsnet can be.

Which hospital did you go op? the clinic I worked in had a waiting room that saw over 400 women a week with scans , first trimester clinics and routine antenatal care.

susiedaisy1912 · 22/04/2024 11:26

I’d say they wouldn’t mind as long as she brings the sick bucket, they are usually not that busy anyway.*

😂😂 I'm just imagining the sonographers faces when a vomiting child approaches them with a sick bucket. 🪣

HcbSS · 22/04/2024 11:31

Unless you are disabled or a single mum then this is a total non issue. You go in alone - partner stays with ill child. No brainer.
Your unwell child needing care takes precedence over you needing someone to hold your hand at the appointment.

patchworkpal · 22/04/2024 11:34

InTheRainOnATrain · 22/04/2024 11:02

‘my grand kids came daughter her partner’ I thought that was the list of who that poster brought with her but honestly who knows when it’s written so badly and there’s no punctuation 🤣

Yes I took it to be:
daughter
daughter's partner (sex unkown)
other daughter and her grandkids aged 6 5 and 2.

3 adults 3 kids

And the poster is expecting another son/daughter though I suppose it could have been a scan for another reason

WhatNoRaisins · 22/04/2024 11:38

You do get patients that bring a load of extended families to appointments. The nurses tend to dread those families