Scans. Why do we bother?

[spidermama]

I expect I'll be a lone voice on this matter but here goes.

I never had scans. Didn't see the point. I think routine scanning is an expensive waste of NHS money and regularly scares women during pregnancy.

I've lost count of the number of women who've had needless, sleepless nights because of comments made or action taken as a result of scans.

I don't need them for bonding. I can bond perfectly well without a grainy picture.

Yet the vast majority of all women I meet seem to love scans. Why?

Neo-natal deaths are much higher for those women who do not present for ante-natal care. Obviously there are complex reasons why but ante-natal care is still important.
And I sort of understand SM's views, but they are the views of someone who has never had a life-threatening condition in pregnancy and thus do sound a little smug and complacent (albeit unintentionally) to those of us who have. Some of us also get incredibly tired by the 'pregnancy is a normal process and not an illness' line. My placenta praevia could have killed me and ds. I've had a few illnesses in my time, but not one that could easily kill without surgical intervention. If you are lucky enough to have completely problem free pregnancies then I think you ought to be very grateful and not gaily assume that because you didn't need advanced medical help just to survive pregnancy and childbirth that that intervention and technology is a 'waste of NHS money'.
Plus what's not to love about seeing your child? Even when I was diagnosed with complete pp I was still delighted to see my little boy thriving.

Hi there spidermama - can totally understand where you are coming from....scans do and can cause intense worry but from a grainy picture can be seen a wealth of problems that would otherwise go unnoticed.......it may not necessarily be for bonding but to make sure all is okay with you and baby and well worth the trip..........I have always gone to all my scans even tho all have been nerve wracking do not get me wrong,,,, but thankfully all have been okay for me and baby and have had some lovely photos to take home...

Sorry guys but she ( spidermama) may as well say that what is the poing of having regular, smear tests, breast screening etc for cancer. After all the same arguements maqy apply, hmmm.

Tell me would we then just save ourselves the worry and wait until we feel ill and it is too late to go to the doctor? All those who say, "I know where your coming from spidermama" what do you think about this, hhmmmm?

Hey Norash....you have a point....do not get me wrong when I am saying I understand where she is coming from it does not mean that I would do this myself as I would not... I would always and would always advice others to go for whatever tests needed and necessary because I would myself.... but I can understand her anticipation on the subject and empathise with how she is feeling

I here you kgc, please don't take it personal I meant to say that those who agree with her .

Sorry hear.

hey Norash...no do not get me wrong no probs.....I agree with you Norash honest....where would we be if we did not go for scans, checks etc... too true....but just trying to get spidermama to understand we all feel aprehensive but is good for us in the end

Norash........hear or here....who cares....LOL

But honestly kgc, I think, if she (spidermama) doesn't want to go to scans, that's perfectly fine. That doesn't render the NHS services useless and as nobody is forced to make use of them, I hope only those ones who think it is useful will go.

On the other hand I don't think it is necessary that sm understands why the majority of the people want to have scans. Everybody choses their own way of dealing with their destiny

Hey micha26 yes everyone does have there own view on this and I agree if SM wants to choose not to go for a scan or otherwise then that it her choice and that the NHS is there for those that choose to use it.........SM hope that all advice is taken and you make the decision that is right for you.

hey micha26 totally understand where you and all coming from this thread as one to think about for all.

Kgc, I don't think she really needed advise (maybe I am wrong), seems to me like she was out to express her point of view.

yes think you are probably right Norash....

Getting back to sm's original post:

"Yet the vast majority of all women I meet seem to love scans. Why?"

People have posted why they prefer to have scans. Not sure however if she will accept or understand their reasons. Unless she comes back and tells us, we'll never know

hey there micha26 yes we will never know whether she has posted because she does def. does not want one cause of reasons posted and her....stating her point of view......COMEBACK SPIDERMAMA AND TELL US HOW YOU FEEL......

she will come back, she went to bed if you could be bothered to read.

aloha, I take your points but I think its sad that you assume that pregnancy is not a normal process. Placenta previa is obviously a serious condition but I think its worth bearing in mind that that majority of women do indeed have normal, healthy pgs that require no pre-birth intervention.

Where's pupuce when you need her??

Having had three early miscarriages, in which my uterus - by the time it was scanned - was as bare as the Mojave desert, it was quite a relief to have three scans before week 12 to check that this one was growing normally. I also had the anomaly scan because I wanted to be prepared for any structural abnormalities. However, I am with spidermama on the issue that they can scare women during pregnancy. How many women on here have been told their placenta is low (thereby making them 'high-risk' and possibly scuppering their plans for home-birth, or birth in a midwife-led unit - not to mention engendering weeks of worry) at a point in the pregnancy too early to diagnose placenta praevia properly. By which I mean that the lower part of the uterus has yet expand, which will move the placenta away from the cervix. Or the scan has come up with a completely different date to that on which they think they conceived - which might lead to pressure to induce at the end of the pregnancy (I know, for instance, on which day my peanut was conceived - but the scans have been almost a week out).

I also disagree with the relevance of Aloha's comment about the outcome of pregnancies where there has been no ante-natal care. This is true - but just because you refuse scanning does not mean that you are without ante-natal care. And a competent midwife shouldn't need intrusive methods to be able tell if your baby is breech, for instance.

There is also some evidence to suggest that foetuses just don't like ultrasound. Something to do with the heat generated by the vibrations. And I personally don't feel that I need them for bonding purposes - although they are quite amusing (mine's always been having a party of one in there).

I haven't read all the posts, so I might be repeating what others have said, or treading on someone's toes.

Incidentally, it is NOT illegal to plan to give birth alone. You are perfectly within your rights to do so.

What IS illegal is for an unqualified person to plan to be your birth attendant - although if this happens by accident (baby arrives too quickly, before midwife / ambulance), that's ok.

Oh, I've had a scan cause unnecessary stress. With DS1, I had some stress about a low-lying placenta, which of course wasn't low in the end. But more stressful was being told I had "polyhydramnios" by a scan bloke late in that pregnancy. When we asked what this meant, he said "you have to talk to a consultant".

Gee, thanks.

When I did some research, it turned out that polyhydramnios means either a) the baby has no head or is otherwise very very very broken or b) you just have too much fluid. The old diagnosis method for polyhydramnios is by touch, and I didn't have polyhydramnios by that definition. In fact, when I was re-scanned, they decided I didn't have it by any definition, I was just borderline.

And when I spoke to my mum, she said, she'd always had too much fluid and it was no big. Grrr.

I agree with the scans are vital club - my first baby would have died if he was left to go full term!

I used to love MN. It was always full of very helpful advice and it was the best place to go if you had a worry or needed some advice. Is it just my very wobbly pg hormones or are there lots of people looking to pick fights now? I thought we were all here to support each other but it doesn't seem that way now. I saw the title of the thread and as I have my 20 week scan next week I thought I'd see what it had to say. Of course people have different views about lots of things but surely there's a way of asking what people think without looking for a fight or criticising other people's perfectly valid opinions (on both sides of the debate). It's not just this thread - there seem to be so many where people are just plain nasty. Why? [sits back and waits for a pasting...]

I must have missed the nastyness...I was too lazy to read the whole thread

I had a scan with my first baby and was told he was anencephalic . I had not heard of the condition until I was told the bad news. I was immediately offered termination and I took it.

Sometimes I wonder whether I should have carried my son full term, however, the consultant on the day did emphasise that if my son had survived birth, he would only live for a short time afterwards. My reasoning of choosing termination was being faced with the information at 16 weeks, it would have been a very hard 24 weeks following that.

I am glad I found out early as it would have been devastating returning home empty handed when I'd expected a healthy baby full term. It was hard enough at 17 weeks (I had to be induced and it took 5 days in total before I gave 'birth') to consider remaining childless for the time being when everything had seemed to be going well.

I had a scan with my second child, my dd. I believe her disabilities occured just before birth and no scan would have been able to pick up her CP. When I think about my dd, I question whether it was right to take my son's life but you can't turn the clock back. I love my dd to bits and cope with her disabilities. BTW I did not find out about her CP until she was 7 months old and no-one detected it at birth.

I MC my third child at 7 wks and had to have a scan to determine my uteris being emtpy. Luckily it was so I didn't need further intervention.

Child no. 4 was also scanned. He is a perfect 11 yr old ds now.

Nature can be kind or bad. Scanning helps us make decisions but sometimes not enough information is given to us by the medical profession.

I never got to see my ds no 1 - in the end it was rather rushed and a relief it was over. I wish today I had held him and had self-reassurance that things were not as they should be. Instead I relied on the people around me. I looked forward to the scan on my first pregnancy. After that I dreaded them for number 2 and 4, but still went ahead, if only to be reassured anencephaly had not reoccured.

This is a difficult thread really. If you've never had problems whilst you were pg then I can understand why you might feel that scans are a waste of time (for you!).

My first two pgs were dire, as I bled on and off all the way through. DS1 and 2 were scanned pretty much every other week, to make sure they were still there and to check everything was OK. I then had a m/c, so by the time I was pg with DD I was very nervous only having the 'normal' scans. I wanted more! However, if I had only had text book pgs maybe I wouldn't place so much importance on them?

Incidently, on the subject of Dhs and scans, mine took time off work for every scan I had. He loved seeing them moving about on the screen, and would take the scan pictures into work afterwards. He did work in an office full of women though

I thank god for scans.... my dd1's operable heart defect was detected by ultrasound - meant lots of factors were in place when she was born along with added monitoring that encured her birth and first few months of life were not her last.

It also meant the more detailed fetal cardiac scan determined exactly what was wrong with her heart rather than the more scary 'worse' quasi diagnosis the grainy local ultrasound had given us.

Gave us time to get sorted and read up about her condition.

Also alerted us to the fact that she would have down syndrome given the type of heart defect...again gave us time to prepare and read up.

It was an ultrasound that determined she had not grown for two weeks and the added poor dopplers that determined she was born very shortly after the scan that also saved her life......