Obstetric Services

EARLY DATING

Congratulations on your positive pregnancy test!

This scan is performed around 7-8 weeks after your last menstrual period (LMP) and might be your first chance to see your baby. Baby is still very small at this stage so at this scan the main things we hope to achieve are:

Confirm that baby is within the uterus
Find baby’s heartbeat
Measure the crown-rump length of baby to estimate your due date (EDD)
Check for multiple pregnancies
Check your uterus and ovaries

12 week Anatomy

Nuchal scan

Baby grows very quickly at this stage of your pregnancy and at this scan we are able to check early development of anatomy. At this scan we:

Find baby’s heartbeat
Check early development of brain, limbs and spine
Measure the crown-rump length of baby to estimate your due date (EDD)
Check placental position and the umbilical cord
Check your uterus and ovaries

At this stage of your pregnancy, there are also various options you may have discussed with your doctor for genetic screening, such as maternal serum screening and non-invasive prenatal testing. Our sonographers are experienced in performing the nuchal translucency measurement which is used for some genetic screening tests.

20 week Morphology

THE BIG SCAN!

This is the most extensive scan during your pregnancy as it is the optimal time for us to see baby’s development in more detail and check in on baby’s growth. At this scan we:

Find baby’s heartbeat and analyse the vessels of the heart
Check brain and face structures
Check development of baby’s internal organs such as kidneys, stomach and bladder
Look at baby’s skeleton including spine and limbs
Take biometry measurements to assess baby’s growth
Check placental position, the umbilical cord and amniotic fluid
Assess your cervix

This is the typical scan for gender determination unless you’ve opted for an earlier check! Our sonographers will check with you if you wish to know baby’s gender and will let you know at the end of the scan or can write it down for you so you can look at a later time. If you would like to keep gender a surprise, rest assured our sonographers are very discreet.

If possible, we also try to get 4D images of baby’s face at this scan for you to keep. There are several factors that can limit our ability to get good images of baby in 4D so unfortunately we can not guarantee 4D images for every scan.

3rd Trimester

Growth & Wellbeing

These scans are not standard for all pregnancies but may be referred by your doctor for many different reasons. Some women may not have a 3rd trimester scan at all, some have one and some will have many. At this scan we:

Find baby’s heartbeat and assess baby’s position
Take biometry measurements to assess baby’s growth
Check some of baby’s anatomy
Check placental position and amniotic fluid
Perform Doppler blood flow measurements