20 week scan, Dundalk !!!!!!! Such a disappointment

Hi All, Sorry bit of long winded rant!! We were so lookin forward to our 20 week scan today, everybody has been telling us you'll see so much and everything will be so clear and if you want to know they may even be able to tell the sex of the baby! Such a disappointment to start with we were in the Louth for 3 hours and out of that I saw a student midwife for approximately 3mins in a room with 2 other ladies and 4 midwives (there would have been more room in a cattle mart) and then a doctor for 7 mins. The doctor was so laid back she may as well have been on the floor (she told us she wasnt really with it today!!!!) everything I asked I got the same response "thats just part and parcel of being pregnant" even though when I told the midwife about severe back pain she said she would imagine the doctor would send me for physio, no I had to ask if I should go to my own physio her response if I think it will help!!My husband was with me and she didn't even acknowledge him, when she went to examine my belly she literally closed the curtain in his face and left him on the other side, she measured me with a measuring tape (please someone tell me this is normal) and used a dopler to hear the heartbeat that she informed me sometimes works!! This was the first time my husband heard the heartbeat and he was on the other side of curtain!! I asked about a scan and she told me if your lucky and get the doctor that has the machine you'll get a scan but that they only have one and this they bring down from Drogheda. No blood test, no weight check. My 12 week appointment was in Drogheda due to a mix up by Dundalk and I have to say such a contrast everybody is so willing to make you feel like you should be there and giving you plenty of advice and help and we were only there for approximately 2 hours. Anybody with similar experiences or is this the norm!!

That's terrible how ur husband was treated. I can't believe she didn't involve him My advice just to try make what happened a little better is to maybe book u and ur hubby into a private scan It costs around'100 euro and I know it's prob not affordable to some people right now but if u can afford to then take ur hubby along and give him a nice experience u won't get this back again Sorry it was so bad for you x

I had my 12 week scan in the Louth and they were great, ive had 2 mc's and they were very reassuring, took ages over the scan etc. a friend of mine was there a week before and got a very sour midwife and had a very different experience. I'd book a private scan too, it was a bit of a cheek. my doc uses a Doppler for hb but I'd expect a proper scan in the hospital. Is it not meant to be the anomaly scan?

Were you expecting to have an anomaly scan on this visit? In most hospitals where there's a scan at 20 weeks, it's a separate visit from the usual antenatal care appointments, and you see a radiographer rather than a doctor. But not every hospital offers this as routine. The measuring tape thing is how it's supposed to be done, and usually bloods are only done at the 12 week visit, unless there's a problem, so those things are ok. But there's no excuse for them being rude to you.

From the medical point of view my 20week appointment took the same format (i'm attending drogheda) though the difference being I was in and out in 40mins. In drogheda they only do 1 scan at 12 weeks. I was disappointed there was no anomaly scan but decided not to get a private one, I figured if the hospital thought something was wrong they'd scan me then. Sorry your experience was not a good one and for the way they treated your dh.

My next one is in the MLU in drogheda so I hope I get a scan!

Thanks for the replies we decided to make an appointment and get a scan done in the Newry Clinic its €60 and they will check size, placenta etc, it will be a bit of piece and mind which is what we want. Midwife I spoke to in the Newry clinic was able to tell me that I wont get another scan in Drogheda/Dundalk until the 32/36 week appointment!! Best of luck in the MLU

Can you PM me the details for Newry? I've been going to Dublin for my private ones, i never thought of Newry!

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Girls I would have to say from reading your posts the care is so much better in the north! I've had about 6 scans so far in this pregnancy and as far as I know I'll get a scan at every hospital apt from now on (Not at the gp though) I got bloods done at my booking apt at 10 weeks and if everything had been normal my bloods would have been done again at 20 wks. As it happened I had iron issues so ended up getting bloods done in between. From 20 wks on I have seen either the hospital or my GP every two weeks, it alternates between the two. I got a private scan at the Newry Clinic at 13 weeks and it was £50, it was brilliant, the fotos I got from it are the clearest of any I have.