Hospitals? How does it all work

Hello everyone,

I was wandering if anyone could help me work out how this all works... Im around 9 weeks pregnant. The doctor sent me for blood tests a scan at around 6 weeks for fetal ageing. I went and did that she could get a heartbeat but couldnt get a clear enough pic to measure to give me an exact date but thought i was about right with my dates. Ive been back to the doctor and she referred me to the hospital and told me to book in with them for my first appointment which can be anytime now and do more blood tests 3 days prior to my appt. I rang the hospital and they said they wont book me in until I am 12 weeks...im a bit confused?? So do i have my 12 week scan at the hospital or do i go and have this done prior to the appt? this is my first pregnancy so its all a bit unclear

once u go to your appointment at 12 weeks, u need to tell them you wish to have you 12 week scan and they will tell you how to go about it. But with this scan, u also need to have the 10 week blood test, so mayb head into you GP, they can organise it for u.

The 12 week scan is usually only done if you are of mature age or there is a chance of down sydrome etc. HTH

remember 12 weeks is a good time for an appointment, most hospitals wont see you till you are almost halfway.

HI,

to be honest I can't remember what happened last time, but I'm sure I only had to be 1 month or 6 weeks. They did an initial meet & great, sign you up for baby school basically, then I think I went back monthly until 12 weeks, then fortnightly for the second trimester & then weekly in the last one?? but I honestly can't remember. I do remember the first appointment they didn't get a heart beat so that would have to be around the 4-6 weeks mark.

If finances allow you can get a referral to an ob.

But where I am it's strange in the public system to have scans until you are 22 weeks, unless of age, or health concerns.
Midwives just check where the baby is sitting, and check for a heart beat, ask you about general health & well being, and update you on the next stage.

I rang and booked inot the hospital when I was about 4 - 5 weeks pregnant, pretty much straiht away. They organised a 'booking in' appointment, which I had at about 10 weeks. While I was at that appointment, the midwife wrote me a referral for a NT scan which I had at 12 or 13 weeks, and I had my NT blood test on the same day as the scan. I'm assuming that when you say '12 week scan' you are talking about the NT scan that is a screening test for Downs syndrome and some other disorders? You dont need to have a scan at 12 weeks, its the morphology scan at 18 or so weeks that is the one they always try to get you to have.

It seems like all hospitals do it differntly, so you should probably give them a cool and see how they do it there.

Did they take all your details down?

All hospitals seem to work a little differently.

When I rang my local hospital at about 6 weeks they took my details down & I got sent an appointment for booking in which was somewhere around 12 weeks. I got the referral for the NT scan from my GP earlier on & had the BT done through my GP as well.