NHS Midwife booking appointment

[AraW]

Should you tell NHS midwife that you have had early pregnancy scans privately for reassurance? Is there any risk that they will deny you NHS scans as a result? We do not plan to go privately. These were just one-off scans.

You can tell them if you want to, it won’t impact your NHS scans though.

i had private and NHS scans, my midwife wasn’t bothered.

It won't impact your NHS schedule. There's no reason to hide ut or to mention, makes no difference either way

I'm an NHS midwife. You'll be the 15th woman she's seen that day who's had early reassurance scans 😆 Honestly it won't even register.
The only time I would suggest that private care sort of 'cancels out' NHS care is if you have a private NIPT before your dating scan and combined screening. The NIPT is more accurate, so I generally advise women not to have the combined screening on the NHS if they've already had that. But every woman is entitled to equitable NHS care so nothing will be withheld from you just because you've had something done privately.

Thanks all for the replies.

Thanks @Cvn in particular for the insight - very helpful and I’m glad to hear that I won’t be the only paranoid patient that they see that day 😀

The MW won’t care. You are just another pregnant woman on the list to see that day and you will be forgotten before the end of the shift.

er, thanks for that @BeeCucumber. are you a midwife?

The NHS will actually discard anything potentially seen on a private scan. As well as private bloods.

They won't be bothered. They're not tests/examinations they authorised or knew about, they will also dismiss the results from them because they weren't done on the NHS, which is silly imo. It could be weeks before you can get a second opinion on the NHS and you have results that you understand (or might not) and they're being ignored. It's designed to discourage you from even going private, I think. They won't cooperate.

My midwife actually asked me if I had any private scans at booking. I had, and was dated a week behind my NHS date but the midwife said I needed to have my NHS scan to line up with my NHS date (ended up with me having 2 “12 week” scans as the first was too early). By all means mention it, but it won’t impact the dates for your NHS scans

This is definitely not true.

Harsh. My community midwife didn't 'forget' me at all between appointments and would often bring up something I'd mentioned at previous appointment for example 'how was your holiday?' ... and when she saw my name on a new referral asked for me as she'd had me for my first pregnancy and they like to keep continuity of care if possible.

Ps - sorry to derail a bit OP, but this comment annoyed me a bit! Good luck with your pregnancy.

They won’t consider anything “diagnosed” at a private scan, nor will they consider anything dating measurements.

I should hope it is true. Ultrasound scans at private studios like Window to the World are notoriously unreliable and often carried out by people who have very little training. The NHS should absolutely carry out the professional and accurate scans that the woman is entitled to without bias from a place set up to make a profit off of someone's anxiety and/or the desire for a gender reveal party.

In my experience the only time the NHS will take notice of a private scan is if it shows an abnormality or potential miscarriage but even then, you will just be sent to have the appropriate NHS care to check that information is correct. They won’t ever just act on what the private scan says.

I was replying to @EmPeEf's claim that anything found at a private scan is "discarded" by the NHS, which is not true. If, e.g., a private scan dates the pregnancy differently than the NHS one, then we will go by the dates on the NHS one. But if a private scan (which doesn't just mean businesses like Window to the Womb; it also includes obstetricians' private practices) found an anomaly, or slowed growth, excessive amniotic fluid, a low-lying placenta, anything like that, it would absolutely be followed up by the NHS. As @FuzzyWolf says, typically that follow up would start with a confirmation scan to check the findings. But it wouldn't be disregarded just because the patient had paid for it or because the sonographer was trained to a lower standard.