How many scans did you have? I'm scared and need reassurance.

Hi everyone

I'm almost 15 weeks pregnant, and so far I've had 4 ultrasounds - early viability scan at 6.5 weeks, scan with OB at 8 weeks, reassurance scan with midwife at 10 weeks and the 12 week NT scan.

My OB had said it was OK for one particular midwife who had been trained in using ultrasound to give me a reassurance scan (my first pregnancy was a missed miscarriage and I'm terrified of it happening again). When the midwife did the scan it seemed to take a long time, maybe 5 mins or more, much longer than my OB does it for.

I've been feeling very anxious about whether things are going OK, so I called up this morning to ask if the midwife could give me another quick scan, and they said that the doctors have decided that midwives are not to do scans any more as they're not properly trained. They seemed a bit vague as to the specific reasons why they've decided to stop it now.

This has scared me a bit, could the scan that the midwife did have harmed my baby? I'm worried that the 4 scans I've had so far could have done some damage to the baby. I just did a quick google and loads of sites with scary-looking summaries came up. I'm not game to look further into it.

Has anyone else had quite a few scans and their baby has been OK? How many scans are other pg women getting? Did you have any that seemed to last a long time? I know I'm going to be getting a few more over the course of this pregnancy, OB does a quick one at each appointment, and there's the 20 week morphology one to come as well.

** Please don't post anything in here about dangers you've heard about, I just need some reassurance today as I'm feeling very emotional and quite scared.

Thanks very much

Devon
xxxx

Don't worry. Women having twins usually have a scan every fortnight.
It can't harm your baby as it measures sound waves.
You will still need the morphology scan at 18 - 22 weeks. That one could take up to an hour. 5 minutes is nothing.
Don't stress Bub's is perfectly healthy!

Thank you so much bjrose, that's exactly what I needed to hear. I know I'm being a crazy, irrational pregnant woman. I was in tears to DH on the phone over it and I knew I was overreacting. I'm just so scared of losing this baby that everything seems dangerous and worrying.

Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

Devon
xxxx

I had 8 scans on the big scanning equipment and one on the OB's little one. My scans varied in time - as little as a couple of minutes (OB's one) to I think nearly an hour (NT scan when a big NT measurement was found), and a similar time for the week 34 week one (for a growth check but an issue with cord blood flow was then suspected). All others were somewhere in between. He was born completely normal and as far as we can tell he has been completely unaffected by all that scanning. Try not to stress about it.

Due to a history of infertility and m/c I was often worried something was wrong. Regardless of having all those scans (none of them requested by me) I still had moments where I felt sure something was wrong. It never was. Scans will only reassure you until the next time you have doubts. I found posting in here whenever I had those doubts helped a lot.

Devon please dont stress it is very normal to have many scans. I had 5 scans before i was 20 weeks then my ob did a quick scan every visit so i think i had arond 12 scans all pregnancy. Think of it as an exciting thing to see how your baby is growing and progressing. Good luck and enjoy.

Hi Devon,

I had weekly looksies at my bub with my OB and she is perfectly healthy, bouncy and happy. the ones with my OB were usually just 5 minutes or so (sometimes longer as DH could never work out what was what LOL!).
we also had a long NT scan and the 20 week scan took almost 2 hours...

Big :hug: to you! you are in the zone where the m/s is tapering off (hopefully!) and are probably not yet feeling those gorgeous kicks...i remember finding those weeks really tough, but be rest assured that in the coming weeks bubs will let you know that they are growing strong by hefty kicks to your guts!

Hi Devon

Another scan-a-holic here!! I have had one at 8 weeks- one at 13 weeks- one at 19 weeks, 23 weeks, 27 weeks, 32 weeks, 34 weeks and 36 weeks, they were all at least 20 minutes long and while bubs hasnt been born yet- i am sure he is fine, and we have a nice collection of pictures of him already as some where 3D/4D- which are pretty cool- and some of those scans took so long coz the dr was trying to get a cute pic of his face!!!

I would say that your dr has put a stop to Mid wives doing scans merely because as they said- they are not exactly qualified and if anything was overlooked and found to be wrong at a later stage (not with you- but in future for other people) then they are at risk of legal action etc- so they are just covering their arses! And it could just be too- that when you called- the eprson you spoke to wasnt aware that one particular m/w was able to give scans.. maybe talk with your ob again when you see them next.

Take care
StarBright

I had a scan at 6 , 8 10, 12 20 and 32 weeks with my last pregnancy

With all my pregnancies I had 3 us in the first 12 weeks and one at 20 weeks.. with ds2 and 3 I had scans at 36 weeks..

They are all healthy !

Devon, I just wanted to come in and give you a big hug :hug: and say it is ok to ask questions and sometimes it can be hard not to get worried when we don't necessarily understand something completely but that doesn't necessarily mean that something is wrong. You can always talk to your doctor about any concerns you may have and the options available to you.

But for now, please don't worry and look after yourself the best you can. The PALLTC gang may be able to give you some more reassurance too hun.
:hug:
xx

bjrose, satya, abb34, cassius2, StarBright and aussienic - thank you all so much for your replies, I feel so much better now :) I have got to stop worrying about every little thing. I'm naturally a worrier and having had a missed m/c I think it's just made me even worse.

StarBright - yes, you're probably right about the reason why they have stopped midwives doing scans. That makes a lot of sense, OBs are very concerned about covering their arses! I guess they have to be.

Cassius - I am finding this stage a bit difficult. Morning sickness has gone completely, and while it was very unpleasant, at least it was reassuring. Now I don't even feel pg anymore, except for my expanding belly.

Satya - I know what you mean about convincing yourself that something is wrong, I keep doing that. So hard to get a grip when it's gone wrong before.

Thanks again everyone, you've really helped me today - gotta love BellyBelly.

ETA - thanks Dusty Mod! Thanks for the hugs, and yes, it's great to ask questions on BB. I must stay away from the evil google.

Devon
xxxx

With DS#1 I only had 2 scans. 19/20wk and then 37/38wk.
With this last pg I had 4 scans. 13wk, 19/20wk, 27wk, and then 36wk.

I hope you're having a H&H pg, beside the worrying.
I'm a worrier too.
:hug:

Everything's fine, I'm sure.

xx

I've had 3 scans so far, first at 5.5 weeks, second at 7.5 weeks and third at 11.5 weeks (NT). Hoping to have another on Monday.
:hug:

Devon, sending you many, many :hug: right now. I know the anxiety you are feeling right now all too well.

As for my history - scan at 6 weeks with FS, OB check at nearly 9 weeks, another scan at just past 10 weeks, NT scan at just past 12 weeks, another OB check at nearly 14 weeks... 5 scans so far, and everything is fine.

When I was freaking out with my FS before my first scan, he told me that despite what had happened previously (missed miscarriage discovered just before 9 weeks), the odds were very much in our favour of having everything work out fine this time.

Also want to add... you're in 2nd trimester now, the risks have dropped. It's taken me a while to get my head around that fact, but for now I'm stubbornly refusing to let myself worry and I'm committed to being relaxed and enjoying the "boring" stage of pregnancy between the first trimester risks going away and the later pregnancy complications developing - if they develop at all. Some days the only thing keeping me there is the fact that work has me too exhausted to worry too much, but I am mostly managing it.

Hang in there! Chances are very good that all will be fine now. :hug: As the others have said, they've likely stopped the midwives doing scans because a problem was missed on a reassurance scan due to lack of proper training rather than a reassurance scan being the cause of a problem.

BW

Hey Devon,

I agree with what others have said - you'll be fine! 14.5 weeks is a great time to be, and there's so many cases of other ladies having heaps of scans. I also have seen reference to the "scary" stuff on the internet, and deliberately avoided it (I was too scared to look). Like you, I've had a missed m/c, and made up for it this time by having lots of dramas in first tri, with a total of 5 scans in my first trimester alone (i've since had more - lost count!)! First tri scans were for spotting (6.5 wks), reassurance (8 wks), more spotting/bleeding/subch & cord cyst (9 wks), obs check (10 wks) and NT scan (12 wks). Since then we've had the morph scan at 20 wks, and little checks at obs visits. And bubs is doing absolutely fine!

I think I thought once I'd passed my missed m/c milestone, I wouldn't be scared or worried anymore. The reality is you still do worry - even women who've had no m/c's worry - it's very natural. I remember being more nervous for my 20 wk scan than I was for 12 weeks - which seemed just insane to me. I also think that in early 2nd trimester you're still mentally coming to grips with the whole "phew we made it this far" and you don't always feel the huge rush of relief that maybe you thought you would. Plus as you say, you haven't a heap of symptoms now, but you're not hugely "bump"y yet! You'll get there :hug:, and you'll have your days of worrying, but above all :hooray: you're PG! And before you know it, you'll have a big wriggly bubba belly!
Also, as Dusty said, the PALLTC gang are a great crowd, come & post in there too :)
All the best, Belfie.

My friend had her first bub in Singapore and said that she got a scan at EVERY appointment she went to....which is a lot of scans! Obviously quite different over there to here! She was a private patient. Her bub is fine....very energetic but I wouldn't think that was caused by the scans!

Thanks so much Tennykins, AJC, BW, Belfie and Chocolatecatty. It's nice to have so much reassurance, I think it is right that some problem may have been missed by one of the midwives and that's why they've stopped the scans.

I think that you're right Belfie, it's hard for me to believe I've got this far and there's still something in the back of my head that's saying 'this can't possibly work out'. I think I keep getting disappointed in myself that I'm still not able to fully embrace it, my missed m/c was at 9 weeks and 5 days, so I'm way past that point, but part of me still feels like it's going to happen again. I lurch from worrying about one thing to worrying about another and it feels endless. I'm glad that everything is going well for you and your bubs!

BW - yes, definitely hard to get my head around being in the second trimester now. After my NT scan the sonographer said risk of miscarriage was now 1 in 500, which really should reassure me. Still, says my mind, it has to happen to someone. I really do want to get on top of this doom and gloom worry though, otherwise I think I'll regret not enjoying my pregnancy - for so long I was so desperate to be pg again, so I should be trying to enjoy it now that I am. Congratulations on reaching 16 weeks!!

Thanks again girls, I really appreciate it.

Devon
xxxx

I'll do a little subliminal chant for you.. hehe... You're pregnant.. you ARE pregnant... second trimester!

I remember writing some very similar posts at your stage, and these lovely experienced ladies who were 3rd trimester would post to reassure me... and I'd look at their tickers and it would just blow my mind to think someone could be 30+ weeks.. I just couldn't imagine it back then. I felt sometimes I would never make it. So you know what? Before you know it... YOU will be doing this for someone else.. and you'll be 30+ weeks and it will seem as though it will all have gone so fast!!

I think the other reality is that there is always something you can worry about... and that's the biggest challenge of all - finding a way to focus on the positive and not the what if's... because lets face it, once your bubba is born, I'm sure there will always be something new we can worry about! I remember someone told me her mantra was "right here, right now, I'm pregnant and i'm going to enjoy it!" I always thought that was such a lovely way of thinking about it. And we're not superwomen, so yup, sometimes it's easier said than done... but it doesn't hurt to try it.

And I'm just sitting here thinking about the beautiful little growing bean that you have in your belly - and it's gonna grow up and be whole big person. WOW!

And if it helps, my little bubba (you know, that one I thought wouldn't make it), well he's a little boy, and we already know we're going to call him Xander Jordan (aka Xandy-pants teheh)... the hardest thing is keeping it secret from friends & family! We just tell every stranger we meet instead! HAHA!

Cheers,
Belfie