Antenatal testing and scans

Nicola S: 12 weeks - The day of the first scan

I’m there outside the hospital, waiting for my boyfriend Gerald to turn up for the scan. Eventually I call him and find out he set his reminder alarm for 11pm not 11am – luckily there is a delay and he rushes into the ultrasound room just as the monitor is being attached.
This is amazing. With the help of some interpretation from the doctor we can pick out little arms and legs, tummy, head and little heart beating away. Everything looks fine. The relief is overwhelming. From now on, I think I am going to enjoy my pregnancy.

Nicola S: 20 week ‘foetal anomaly’ scan

The day of the 20 week scan arrives and we can see our little boy (no question about the gender, Gerald is suitably proud). We have a name for him - Mr Wriggly. Can’t stop kicking and wriggling about, making it hard for the ultrasound doctor to get the measurements and do all the checks. But in the end he gets a clean bill of health. Another sigh of relief and I return home walking on air. (Although I am definitely feeling heavy).
Now I really am trying to get my act together health wise. I decide banana milkshakes are the way to go and every day a banana and half a pint of milk are blended and drank… yum yum yum… I’m not so keen on the sardines Gerald is making me eat (good for the brain, apparently, and we need all the help we can get), but it’s all in a good cause.

Jennifer B: Is our little bean OK?

We had numerous ultrasound scans, a very early one (six weeks) as we'd had reproductive assistance and anyone going through that unit is given a six week scan.
Given our earlier loss, the hospital were lovely and gave us a 10 week scan for our sanity- to prove the little bean was still alive and well.
We then had the normal 12 and 20 weeks scans.
We chose not to have blood tests to show disability or test for Downs syndrome etc, as it wouldn't have changed the outcome for us. I wouldn't have terminated the pregnancy unless severe spina bifida, for example, had shown at ultrasound and the pregnancy was definitely going to be lost. For these reasons we passed on these tests.

Ingrid M: Scans, tests and all that

At the 12 week scan my baby had her spine pointing towards the scanner so we got a great view of that. I was really pleased as I was worried in case her spine hadn’t formed correctly. I had been taking folic acid since I started trying for a baby but as people with epilepsy have a greater risk of having a child with spina bifida, I was worried. I was also relieved there was only one baby there as twins run in my family and I was convinced there were two in there, as I felt so tired and looked quite big.
I also had the alpha-feto protein test serum test at 16 weeks and two additional growth scans at 28 and 32 weeks.

I was relieved after the 20 week scan as I’d heard a few stories of people who’d got bad news at this scan.  Thankfully everything was fine. The two growth scans were good as they showed that my baby was growing in a reasonable way (even though I looked like I was having a huge baby).

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