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Pregnancy

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

Two NHS scans said girl, private scan at 36 weeks showed a boy

3 replies

RaspberryRipple1993 · 27/05/2026 15:41

I’m a few days out of this, so feeling ok - just wanted to share my experience because it’s interesting I guess!

I’m 36+5 with my first baby. At the NHS anatomy scan at 20 weeks, my husband and I requested if they could look to see the gender (we know at NHS appointments they always say they can’t guarantee it and they’re hesitant to say “it is a…”) but the first sonographer said “I think it’s a girl based on these three lines I can see”. However she didn’t seem 100% confident and we had to come back a couple of weeks later for another scan anyway as baby was hiding some of its spine.

We come to the second appointment and the second sonographer (different person) says “well we don’t like to be certain on gender here but let me just say there’s a definite absence of a penis!” So given that was 2 sonographers saying girl, we went ahead and told friends and family we were having a girl.

Fast forward around 5 months of growing, loving and talking to this ‘girl’ and we go for a private growth scan as I was showing as high percentile but the awkward midwife I had at my last appointment (I’ve had a different one each time) wouldn’t send me for a scan, so we opted to go private.

Turns out the baby is slightly large (around 6lb 9) but not 97th percentile - and also, quite obvious penis on the screen! Sonographer was amazed we were told ‘girl’ by 2 different people, and confirmed it is 100% a boy.

The funny thing is, my husband and I felt the baby was a boy until told otherwise - and then adjusted to it being a girl (we had no preference, just a feeling). We had a boy’s name picked out, but have struggled to find a girl’s name we were 100% sure on. Now I feel this is because on a subconscious level I felt none were right because there was a boy growing inside me!

Anyway we’re happy to be having a healthy baby, but goodness what are the chances of something like this?! And if I hadn’t have had that scan I would have found out when I pushed him out 😂

OP posts:
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Orangemintcream · 27/05/2026 15:55

That does happen. We had a baby in our family that was a girl until he was delivered.

That was a bit of a surprise.

Blimms · 27/05/2026 15:57

SIL had a boy that was supposed to be a girl. It happens

LizardyGuts · 27/05/2026 16:15

It can happen. Although the fact that the first NHS sonographer clearly identified the three lines of the labia means I wouldn't put too much stock in it being a boy either!

What qualifications and experience did the private scan sonographer have?

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