Benefits of an Early Scan

yellow hen

Hi girls,

I cant decide whether to book an appt for an early scan or not. The coombe have confirmed that they will do a dating scan at 12 weeks. I dont know whether just to sit tight and wait for that appt or go for an early scan which will cost €100 and basically only offer me reassurance that all is ok. Is that enough of a reason to get one? What did you girls do?

sleepytrees

yellow hen wrote: »

Hi girls,

I cant decide whether to book an appt for an early scan or not. The coombe have confirmed that they will do a dating scan at 12 weeks. I dont know whether just to sit tight and wait for that appt or go for an early scan which will cost €100 and basically only offer me reassurance that all is ok. Is that enough of a reason to get one? What did you girls do?

Hey Yellow Hen,

I think the early scan is a great idea. I got an early scan at my hospital because I had some issue at the start. Being able to see the heartbeat gave me great reassurance. If the hospital hadn't given me an early scan, I would of went private! I got a scan at 4 and 6wks! At the six weeks scan I got to see the tiny heartbeat. The 12wks scan was amazing though, because it's actually looks like a little baby!

Ginny

We had one at 9.5 weeks, as that way we had something to show the parents at Christmas. We went to babyscan and they gave us 6 pics and a Dvd of the scan too, and showed us the blood flow back and forth between me and the baby. Now our scan in the hosp wasn't until 13/14 weeks as far as I remember it was a very perfunctory scan, just checking there was something there with a heartbeat. we got one pic, although it was quite fuzzy.
Only thing to remember is to not get one too early, as you might not see a heartbeat yet and that can upset some people, I think the private scan places will only do them after a certain amount of weeks.

yellow hen

Ginny do you mind me asking where you went for your private scan?

Ginny

It was www.babyscan.ie I think they've a few branches around?

yellow hen

Ginny wrote: »

It was www.babyscan.ie I think they've a few branches around?

Thanks ginny. That is really convenient and it does Saturdays. thanks again!

gogo

yellow hen wrote: »

Hi girls,

I cant decide whether to book an appt for an early scan or not. The coombe have confirmed that they will do a dating scan at 12 weeks. I dont know whether just to sit tight and wait for that appt or go for an early scan which will cost €100 and basically only offer me reassurance that all is ok. Is that enough of a reason to get one? What did you girls do?

All most people want all the way through pregnancy is 'reassurance that everything is ok'. So for that reason alone its definatley worth it.

When you see that little heartbeat for the first ime you'll understand.

Enjoy!

LegacyUser

There is a flip side. My wife had a miscarriage a few years ago. We got an early scan as she had a few pains and cramps and they wanted us back in a week. We didn't realise at the time but they knew it wasn't looking right. We were heart broken when we found out after the 2nd scan.

This time around she's 8 weeks and we paid for a private early scan for peace of mind. We saw the heart beat and and it was an incredible moment we'll never forget but we've been told the embryo size is a little small for that dates (about a week smaller then it should be). We wont know more now for 2 weeks. My wife will torture her self for 2 weeks now and nothing anyone can say or do will chance that or the outcome of the next scan for the better or worse.

In our situation we were always going to go for the early scan this time around but my advice is enjoy the early days of the pregnancy as we havent been able to this time around. There is nothing they can do this early on and the waiting is horrible. If you are having negative symtoms I would say go to the hospital your registered with and get an early scan.

TwoMums2Be

We had to have an early scan with our clinic but it was lovely to see a little heartbeat and know all was well I would imagine it feels like forever otherwise esp as we knew we were pregnant very early on

Something to keep in mind is that if you go to somewhere like mount Carmel they have a consultant on call so if there was anything wrong they can talk to you about it - obviously I hope this is not the case for you but it helped friends of ours. You won't necessarily get this from a scan centre.

We used babyscan for our 3D scan and were happy so it's nothing to do with scan centres just worth knowing the difference

Glowing

TwoMums2Be wrote: »

We had to have an early scan with our clinic but it was lovely to see a little heartbeat and know all was well I would imagine it feels like forever otherwise esp as we knew we were pregnant very early on

Something to keep in mind is that if you go to somewhere like mount Carmel they have a consultant on call so if there was anything wrong they can talk to you about it - obviously I hope this is not the case for you but it helped friends of ours. You won't necessarily get this from a scan centre.

We used babyscan for our 3D scan and were happy so it's nothing to do with scan centres just worth knowing the difference

Thumbs up for Mount Carmel too - they were fab. I got an 8 week and a 14 week scan here. They have flexible hours and it cost 95 euro. Highly recommended.

Mink

I was exact same as Ginny, went to the babyscan.ie place in Swords right before Christmas when I was 9 weeks. It was either 95 or 100 and I wanted to get reassurance for telling immediate family on Christmas day as a nice surprise.

It just looked like a little jelly bean with a nice heartbeat but it was great. Got lots of pics & was supposed to get DVD but I think we went off without it. Sonographer was lovely.