Thread: Pregnant-no 20 Weeks Scan In Certain Hospitals In Scotland Due To Funding And Staff

HI ALL MAMS AND DADS TO BE IN AND AROUND CENTRAL AND THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND.

I AM LISTING THIS THREAD DUE TO MY OUTRAGE ABOUT THE LACK OF 20 WEEK ANOMALY SCANS IN OUR NHS HOSPITALS. YES I AM HORMONAL AND THIS MAKES IT WORSE BUT THEN I HAVE THE TIME AS I AM AT HOME WITH MY FEET UP AND WANT TO VOICE MY OPINION. I READ MY MOTHER AND BABY, PRIMA BABY AND JUNIOR PREGY AND BIRTH AND IN ALL ISSUES THERE IS A SCHEDULE FOR SCANS ETC BUT THIS DOES NOT CONCERN ALL NHS AREAS. ONE DAY IT REALLY ANNOYED ME HENCE THIS THREAD.

I AM BEING CARED FOR BY RAIGMORE HOSPITAL IN INVERNESS (1st SCAN 12 WEEKS CHARGED £2.00 PER PICTURE). I HAVE TAKEN THE MATTER UP WITH MY LOCAL MSP DAVE PETRIE WHO NEVER REALLY KNEW ABOUT THE 20 WEEK SCAN PROBLEM UNTIL HE HAD A FEW COMPLAINTS FROM PARENTS TO BE LIKE ME. DUE TO OUR CONCERN THERE HAS BEEN ARTICLES IN THE LOCAL NEWS AS WELL AS ON THE RADIO ABOUT THIS SITUATION BUT WILL IT BE RESOLVED? THEY SAY 2 YEARS BUT WHY WHEN THEY ARE WASTING MONEY ON OTHER ISSUES.

I FEEL ALL THESE PRIVATE SCANNING FACILITIES ARE MAKING MONEY AND THE NHS ARE SAVING IN A PLACE THEY SHOULD NOT BE..WHAT DO YOU THINK? GOOD THEY ARE THERE BUT BAD IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT!

MY FIRST CHILD WAS BORN IN GERMANY 6 years AGO AND I WAS TREATED IN A VERY DIFFERENT WAY. I DID HAVE PROBLEMS WITH MY FIRST PREGNANCY AND FEEL VERY INSECURE ABOUT THIS PREGANCY AS IT IS GOING THE SAME WAY AS MY FIRST. DO THEY CARE? DO THEY LISTEN? MY NEXT SCAN 33 WEEKS WILL HAVE THEM ANSWER 57 QUESTIONS I HAVE TO FIND OUT IF THEY CARE!

THE CARE HERE IN SCOTLAND SO FAR HAS BEEN POOR IN WAYS FOR DETECTING ANY ABNORMALITIES APART FROM A BLOOD TEST. THIS CAN END UP IN A FALSE RESULT, EG HIGH OR LOW RISK PREGNANCY. IF YOU ARE AN OLDER MUM LIKE ME THEN THE BLOOD TESTS MEANS NIL..AND YOU WANT TO SEE WHAT IS GOING ON. THE AFP BLOOD TEST DOES GIVE INFORMATION ABOUT THE PREGNANCY WHERE A FEW PROBLEMS CAN BE FOUND, SO WHAT DO THEY DO WHEN THEY HAVE A PROBLEM IGNORE IT AS THEY HAVE NO MONEY TO TAKE CARE OF IT? MAKES YOU WONDER! BLESS MY MIDWIFE FOR AGREEING WITH ME.

WHAT IS CHECKED IN A 20 WEEK ANOMALY SCAN, MORE THAN ENOUGH TO EASE OUR MINDS AND PREPARE US IF THERE IS A PROBLEM. I HAVE LISTED ALL BELOW FOR THOSE WHO ARE NOT SURE.

Your baby's internal organs are examined in cross sectional views, or "slices" of your baby, which may be difficult -- if not impossible -- for you to make out! Bones will look white on the scan, fluid will be black and soft tissues will look grey and speckled.

The head is usually examined first. A normal head is rugby-ball shaped with a mid-line separating the two halves of the brain which are surrounded by fluid. There is a dumb-bell shaped structure called the cerebellum (hindbrain) at the back of the head.

The sonographer will check your baby's spine in both the long view and in cross section, moving through the neck and shoulders to the pelvis. She is making sure that all the vertebrae are in alignment, that the skin covers the spine at the back and the baby's abdominal wall covers all the internal organs at the front.

She will look at the heart, which should occupy a third of the chest and point to the left. The top two chambers, or "atria", and the bottom two chambers, or "ventricles", should be equal in size and the valves should open and close with each heartbeat. She will then look beneath the diaphragm to see the stomach, under the heart on the left side. Your baby swallows some of the amniotic fluid that it lies in; this can be seen in the stomach as a black bubble.

The two kidneys are either side of the spine, below the stomach and are usually quite hard to see. If the baby's bladder is full, it's easy to see as a black bubble in the pelvis. If it is empty it should fill up during the scan -- your baby has been weeing every half an hour or so for some months now!

The long bones and position of hands and feet are examined; the fingers and toes are looked at but not counted.

The placenta may be on the front or the back wall of your womb, usually near the top (or fundus) so may be described as "fundal" on your scan report. Many are described as "low" because they reach down to or cover the neck of the womb (cervix). If your placenta is low, another scan will be arranged in the third trimester, by which time most placenta will have moved away from the cervix.

It is possible to count the three vessels in the umbilical cord but this may not be done routinely. There should be enough amniotic fluid surrounding the baby to allow it to move freely at this stage.

Some hospitals offer a more detailed scan of the heart to look at the major blood vessels; some also examine the baby's face and lips. Whether your hospital offers this depends on the quality of the scan machines, the time available for each scan and on whether or not the sonographers have had special training to do this.

If you have a history of premature labour or late miscarriage, a scan to measure the length of your cervix may be performed.

Measurements of your baby's head circumference (HC) and diameter (biparietal diameter or BPD) are taken, along with the abdominal circumference (AC) and femur or thigh bone (FL), to date the pregnancy and to make sure your baby is growing normally. If there is more than seven days' difference between your scan dates and your dates according to your last monthly period (LMP) in the second trimester, the scan dates will be used from now on.

About half of all major abnormalities will be seen on a scan and half will not be seen. This means that even if your scan is normal, there is a small chance that your baby will still have a problem.

The following information is published by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. It shows what chance there is of certain serious abnormalities (in the rare eventuality that your baby has one) being picked up at a 20-week scan:

Anencephaly (absence of the top of the head) -- 99 per cent
Exomphalos/gastroscisis (defects of the abdominal wall) -- 90 per cent
Major limb abnormalities (missing or very short limbs) -- 90 per cent
Spina bifida (open spinal cord) -- 90 per cent
Major kidney problems (missing or abnormal kidneys) -- 85 per cent
Diaphragmatic hernia (hole in the muscle separating chest and abdomen) -- 60 per cent
Hydrocephalus (excess fluid within the brain) -- 60 per cent
Down's syndrome (some babies with Down's may have heart or bowel problems that may be seen on the scan) -- 40 per cent
Major heart problems (defects of chambers, valves or vessels) -- 25 per cent

THESE ARE ALL THINGS THAT ARE ALARMING AND CAN CAUSE YOUR LIFE TO CHANGE IN A SECOND AND SOME OF US ARE UNABLE TO COPE IN THIS SITUATION.

IF YOU LIVE IN AN AREA WHERE THIS SCAN IS NOT AVAILABLE THEN ADD ON TO THIS AND LET ALL KNOW HOW ANNOYED YOU ARE TO BE TREATED IN A DIFFERENT WAY TO OTHER HOSPITALS IN THE UK. MOST MUMS IN ENGLAND ARE OFFERED ALL THE SCANS, SO WHY ARE WE DIFFERENT? THEY ARE ALSO TOLD WHAT THEY ARE EXPECTING IF THEY WANT TO KNOW, WE AGAIN ARE NOT UNLESS YOU PAY £225.00 FOR A PRIVATE 4D SCAN BUT NOT ALL OF US ARE IN A POSITION TO PAY THIS LIKE ME. WHY SHOULD WE HAVE TO DO THIS, I KNOW IT WOULD HAVE MADE ME SLEEP BETTER AT NIGHT BUT THEN WHY SHOULD I ESPECIALLY WHERE IF THERE IS ANY PROBLEM WITH MY BUBBLE AND THEY INFORM THE NHS WHERE THE NHS SHOULD HAVE TAKEN CARE OF ME AND THE DAD IN A DECENT MANOR TO BEGIN WITH!

I FIND THIS A SERIOUS ISSUE AND SO DOES MY LOCAL MSP AS WELL AS OTHER GOVERMENT BODIES IN THE AREA.

I KNOW MANY MUMS ARE NOT IN FAVOUR OF HAVING TOO MANY SCANS BUT I FEEL I WOULD RATHER BE SAFER THAN SORRY AND SO WOULD THE DAD TO BE. IT IS THE ONLY CONNECTION DAD TO BE GETS WITH THE BABY BEFORE IT IS BORN AND IT HELPS BUILD UP A CLOSENESS WITH A GROWING BUMP. YES THEN WE HAVE THE GRAND PARENTS IN THE BACKGROUND SAYING ALL THIS WAS NOT AVAILABLE WHEN I WAS EXPECTING BUT WHEN THE MODERN TECH IS THERE THEN IT SHOULD BE USED.

DADS TO BE FEEL FREE TO POINT YOUR VIEWS ON THIS TOPIC. IT IS STRANGE ENOUGH FOR YOU ALL BUT THEN, WHAT IF QUESTIONS DO ARISE WITH YOU TOO.

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Hi Hellonearth.

I work in frontline NHS - although not in anyway to do with pregnancy/obstetrics.

I have to defend all my colleagues who - like myself - do our utmost to care for our patients regardless of any politics, money issues etc. Your comments re money rather than care might well be true of our political fathers but from the point of view of the folks that day in and day out do our jobs as well as we can - I have to say your comments are disparaging - sometimes it seems that we just can't win. I accept there might be folks in our job that sometimes appear to be a bit "passive" - that's what the job does. But I guarantee that everyone in the job gives the best they can and still has a cry every now and again over the less successful outcomes that are inevitable in our line of work.

Having said that - I hope that little Hellonearth works out ok for you, and I'm sure in a few weeks time you'll be able to put your concerns behind you. Hopefully you will have time to say "thanks" to the staff that help you deliver your little one. (P.S. It's normally a Sonographer that does the late scan - not a Midwife).

Best wishes

FV

I have got to say, when I was pregnant with my second child, i found some of the staff less than helpful and certainly not caring. I had a miscarriage a year before and was obviously very concerned all the way through the pregnancy. At 19 weeks, I started to bleed slightly. I went straight to my midwife (not the normal one) who listened for the baby's heart - and couldn't hear anything. She told me to go home and come back in a few days if I was still worried. i was crying in her presence and her lack of care was absolutely appalling - she just sat there with a contemptuous look on her face as if I was mad, sighed and said "Just go home, it'll be fine".

Two days of hell and no sleep at home and then I went to see another midwife, this time with my husbnad. She found the heartbeat straight away and my husband and I just burst into tears on the spot. He explained to this midwife what had happened two days before, and about the miscarriage (which was on my notes) and she was so upset that I had been put through this, giving me my mobile number and telling me to call her if I had any concerns.

Baby was born fine and healthy, but a week after the birth, I became very ill with high blood pressure and feeling like death. I was taken into hospital by ambulance and sent home again as my blood pressure had come down to 140/90. The comment was made "your fundus is a bit high" and I was told I needed daily visits by midwives until I felt better. I was also prescribed anti-biotics.

I didn't feel better, but a few days after this, the midwife who couldn't hear the heartbeat came out and told me "we can't keep checking up on you, either the doctor has to put you on blood pressure tablets or you'll have to pull yourself together".

I tried to pull myself together and without going into gross deatils, four weeks later, a piece of placenta the size of a 50p piece came out. I called the emergency doctor who verified this is what it was (retained placenta) and that I should start to feel better again soon.

Not hijacking the thread, but just wanting to show that not all members of the NHS are caring and that maternity services are becomming more and more shocking.

I've heard stories like this from many friends who've had babies in the last couple of years, so it really isn't just you.