Early Pregnancy Scan
This is an ultrasound examination that may be carried out transabdominally (through the abdomen) or transvaginally (through the vagina).
A full bladder is required initially to enable a transabdominal scan to be performed first. If this scan does not provide the information required the bladder is then emptied and a transvaginal scan is performed. The scan aims to determine the number of fetuses present and whether the pregnancy is progressing normally inside the uterus/womb.
The early pregnancy scan is available up to 14 weeks of pregnancy. We do not perform a viability scan after 18 weeks of pregnancy as your midwife should be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat with the Doppler machine.
If we cannot see a heartbeat on the scan due to the pregnancy being too early then we can repeat the scan free of charge at a pre-determined time interval, when we would confidently expect to see the heart beating.
The anxieties we had with our IVF pregnancy were allayed with the extra scans at Thornbury hospital with Tom Farrell.Helen (Sheffield)
Resources
We also maintain a growing resources section which contains information and advice about a wide range of women's health issues and links to other web resources that may be of interest.
