Am I the only person who gets one scan at 16 weeks?

[Beatie]

My health care trust doesn't offer an early dating scan or nuchal translucency scan nor do they give an anomally scan at 20 weeks. The only scan I get is between 16-18 weeks at the same time as the triple test.

Anyone else? It seems like everyone else has a 12 week scan and a 20 week scan.

no beatie, you are not alone. the hospital i work in is the same. i didnt have dd's there tho. they say its lack of time and money. most of my friends have had their babies there, and they didnt feel they really missed out on anything.

i think you would get offered a 20 wk scan (nuchal) if you needed it tho, no?

im getting mixed up sorry

i havent heard of this before, we get early dating scan at 12 weeks then 20 week one, i thought they did the 20 week one at 20 weeks cause it was the bast time to see the chambers of the heart etc, maybe i am wrong

It seems that wherever you live they do something different. Amazing isn't it? You'd think there would be some consensus of opinion but then that's the NHS through and through.

I think if they identify a hint of a problem at the 16 week scan then you'd get a level II scan at 20 weeks.

It worries me a little. A GP friend of mine paid to have scans privately at 20 weeks for both her babies so she clearly believes that the 16 week one isn't thorough/adequate enough. I think I should ask her about it.

Doesn't suprise me that this comes down to cost.

I too have just found out that my hospital doesn't do any scans until week 20... seems a bit weird. I just want reassurance that everything's ok, but maybe they can tell that from examinations etc...?

Message withdrawn

no its the same here, where i am. you get one scan at 18-20wks and thats your lot. things to be thankful for tho - i actually get offered three scans, only because i have had m/cs. trust me if you had any pain/bleeding/lack of late movement you'd get another scan too.

With ds I got offered two scans (12 weeks and 20). Two years on I was only offered one (12 weeks). I wanted checked at 20 (family history of spina bifida)and asked GP to refer me for a private one though couldn't really afford it. GP got on his high horse about it, said it was a disgrace and managed to get me referred for an NHS scan. It made me mad though - it worked out for me because I had a proactive GP but loads of other folk aren't in the same position. I'm in Edinburgh btw.

I too think this is very odd. I had a 12 week and a 20 scan with ds. I thought the whole point of not telling people until the 1st three months are over is so that you can have the 3 month scan to check everything is okay before telling people.

Zippy, yes I had ds1 in Edinburgh and only got 12 week scan, had ds2 in Watford and was only offered 20 week scan. The thing is at 20 you are looking/feeling pregnant so would you do anything if they found anything anyway?

I did feel I was missing out, had a private nuchal fold with ds2 as was older, but would have loved to have had more scans.

I agree Deegward (love the name btw) - I wouldn't have done anything if there had been an anomoly. However, I would have liked time to get my head around anything major. Also, my SIL (a hospital doctor) said that one of the points of the 20 week scan was to check for any probs which might have to be dealt with asap after the birth and which otherwise might not be immediately obvious.

Try here
these are the NHS guidelines spelling out what care should be offered routinely to all pregnant women ? IIRC you should get a 20 week scan.

I had DS in Denmark and it was totally normal to have only one scan at 18 weeks. I asked for one at 12 weeks and they thought I was mad!

I had 1 scan at 12 weeks (nuchal) and another at 20 (anomaly), both on the NHS. I would definitely have the 12 weeks scan, even if I had to pay for it to be done privately, as it is part of an early detection process for chromosonal abnormalities such as downs syndrome etc. Only after you have had the nuchal, can you decide whether you are high risk enough to require additional testing (blood tests) and/or something more diagnostic (cvs or amniocentesis), and in my opinion, leaving it until 20 weeks is very late. Too late for a cvs, and on the edge of things for the amnio (I think), as well as being quite late on for any more drastic action. Of course if you know for a fact that whatever information you might glean from earlier scans or tests would not affect your decision to have the baby, then I would say it is not worth putting yourself through the worry (and expense sometimes) of these tests.
Also, on a slightly different note, I felt like I really needed to see evidence of the little creature inside me; I was always worried that perhaps I had somehow imagined the whole positive pregnancy test and growing tummy, and would discover that I was a huge fraud (wierd thought, I know!).... so actually seeing the little bean in there (mine had hiccups at 12 weeks and was break dancing away inside!) was very reassuring from that point of view. If you are over 35, then perhaps your local authority might give you the 12 week scan without having to go private?
Good luck...

I think it depends where you are. I'm in the Lothians (nr Edinburgh) and only had one at about 14 weeks with both of mine. It's standard practice in a lot of hospitals here from what I can gather.

Hi - I am a student midwife and my hospital (where I am having the baby) only offers a 16 weeks scan. where I am training it is 12 weeks and 20 weeks. I didn't even go to the 16 weeks scan because it is pointless. 12 weeks for a risk factor for downs syndrome etc (the nuchal scan) and 18-21 weeks for major structural abnormalities. I ended up paying for both of these tests (£100 each) and I would really recommend you do this or go to a hospital that offers at least the 20 week anomaly scan. 12 week scan is a very personal decision because it doesn't give a definate answer and if your baby is "high risk" ie more than 1:250 chance of your baby having a chromosomal abnormality then they will offer invasive test which have a risk of miscarriage. You have to think through whether you would have these tests and if the baby did have a problem what you would do about it. The problems they find at the 20 week scan are more likely to be treatable and it is important to know about them so that you can have the baby in the right place.

It is shocking that there are hospitals only offering a 16 week scan when they can't see all the possible problems. Having said this I should add that I haven't ever seen a 16 week scan done and so I don't know whether they can see some of the problems and would call you back in if there were doubts but I have seen scans done at 18 weeks and the sonographer said to me afterwards that it is so much better to do them later than this in order to see everthing that she wanted to see. Hope I haven't worried anyone too much but I think this is really important to know about before 21 weeks have gone by.