baby scan rip off digusting if you ask me

chaliepud

I only found out with my middle child what she was going to be, and the birth was almost an anti-climax! That is about the only good thing about giving birth, the anticipation of not knowing what you are having! Didn't find out with number 3....

nadnad

its personal choice as to whether you want to find out, i never thought i would want to know but when the time came i changed my mind - it was more about knowing the little person inside me that bit better, instead of just baby it was a little boy and i could talk to him so much better!

Fly_Baby

I too think it is a rip off - i.e. the hospital's way of making more money. Sex of the baby might not be crucial after 1-2 kids but when you are expecting your first - it matters sometimes! I remember expecting my firstbron - I very much wanted to know if that was going to be a boy or a girl and my husband was so proud when we learnt that it was "95% a boy".

Also, knowing sex helps when preparing things for the baby. Friends and family will be offering you equipment and clothes and you have to know which colour you will need (who will want to end up with heaps of babygros with trains and cars when you have a girl?)

And I HAD paid for that little extra of knowing the gender of my own child - in fact paid for much more than that in my taxes, and so did my husband.

Again, having six scans in total in my life (with two kids) - it never took the sonographer took more than 5 seconds to move that thing over my belly and tell me the gender of the child. If it does take loads of time and holds up the whole clinic then the sonographer could say just that, to that particular patient - after all, sometimes it really is not possible to see the gender.

I was really outraged by the OP's brother's hospital. I can respect the Muslim reason - but anything else, i.e., alleged waste of time and unnecessity of this service?.. That's just not true - hospitals waste a lot of time somewhere else.

Fly_Baby

To add to the previous post, I didn't want to know the sex of my second child. It was my own conscious decision and still there were a few difficulties as a result. Yes, my baby had to wear cream-coloured clothes for the first three months - which is not that bad of course. It was a bit more difficult to decide on the name because we had to discuss all possibilities for both genders - and a lot of our time turned out to be wasted because half of them were not required in the end.

But something was really sad in the end. For 9 months, I was expecting a baby who could be a boy or a girl. And I was imagining how that boy or girl would look, how my older one would play with him or her, will they share toys or will I have to buy dolls, will they play football together or will they have different interests? Etc, etc.

When I gave birth to my daughter I couldn't help feeling a loss. Where was my baby boy? It felt like I had been waiting to meet two children but only had one.

themaccas

Fly_Baby wrote: »

I too think it is a rip off - i.e. the hospital's way of making more money. Sex of the baby might not be crucial after 1-2 kids but when you are expecting your first - it matters sometimes! I remember expecting my firstbron - I very much wanted to know if that was going to be a boy or a girl and my husband was so proud when we learnt that it was "95% a boy".

Also, knowing sex helps when preparing things for the baby. Friends and family will be offering you equipment and clothes and you have to know which colour you will need (who will want to end up with heaps of babygros with trains and cars when you have a girl?)

And I HAD paid for that little extra of knowing the gender of my own child - in fact paid for much more than that in my taxes, and so did my husband.

Again, having six scans in total in my life (with two kids) - it never took the sonographer took more than 5 seconds to move that thing over my belly and tell me the gender of the child. If it does take loads of time and holds up the whole clinic then the sonographer could say just that, to that particular patient - after all, sometimes it really is not possible to see the gender.

I was really outraged by the OP's brother's hospital. I can respect the Muslim reason - but anything else, i.e., alleged waste of time and unnecessity of this service?.. Unfortunately I had a lot of experiences with hospitals (both children had ongoing health problems for a while) and a lot of time simply wasted by nurses on talking, and browsing and generally doing nothing for hours in their working day.

I don't mean to be disrespectful to the medical profession and I do know how low paid and how incredibly busy some of them are - but I am speaking from experience - a rather annoying experience at times!

The NHS is a public service not a private one. Your attitude is :eek: OH and I pay thousands in taxes every year like many other people, I don't think that entitles me to waste sonographers time unneccessarily, fine of they can see during the scan. I would rather have my taxes spent on things like cancer drugs. As for nurses 'doing nothing for hours in their working day'...try a day in their shoes....

Fly_Baby

themaccas, I did write that:

- I am speaking from experience
- some of them ARE incredibly busy
- it does not take a minute to see the gender of the baby since the sonographer is browsing the womb anyway.

and at last, I edited my post in the end - although still holding on to my opinion, to be perfectly honest.

NHS is barely a public service anymore, with all the taxpayer's money being spent on it. Especially comparing it to some other countries where it costs less for taxpayers to have that public service.

Yet, we are not discussing NHS here. I just think that the NHS should be genuine in this issue - if it really takes a lot of time then don't identify the sex, explain it to the patient - she cannot argue with you! If it doesn't - then do it if the parent wishes, it is really not a big deal for the sonographer in many cases.

BTW, with my second child, I was refused ALL scans on the NHS just on the ground that I was going to away in another country for some time - "oh, then you have your scans there dear... yes, it is no problem if the scan in 2-3 weeks late".

Caroline73_2

The hospital where I had my first son in 1998 would not tell you. I had moved by time I had my second son in 2005, I wanted to know the gender mostly for my eldest son, but also just because I thought it would be nice!

He announced it by doing a pelvic thrust as soon as the probe was placed on me! The sonographers words were 'I'm glad you wanted to know as I couldn't have hidden that!'

I don't think it's unreasonable to charge for gender sexing as it is an additional service.

jellyhead

bestpud wrote: »

They said it was more likely a boy would 'announce himself' and if it was a girl, we'd be less likely to get an answer.

Both of my boys announced themselves :rolleyes:

But I did want to know - my eldest has special needs and wasn't happy about there being a baby, he wanted to know what sex it would be. If I had had a girl he would have had a massive shock and wouldn't have bonded, not unless I'd had time to prepare him for the horror beforehand. He really didn't want a girl, but I thought that if we definitely knew we were having one that he would 'get used to it' before it/she was born.

r.mac_2

In my NHS area there is a policy not to tell you the sex of the baby - if you want to find out you require to pay for a private scan with a private scanning company, prices around here start at approx £80.

I'm not entirely sure why this is - but possibly because they scan between 14-16 weeks and it's not the most accurate time to sex a baby.

pulliptears

When I had my DD (11) they weren't allowed to tell you. I'd spoken to my cousin before the scan and she told me what to look for to identify a boy. I looked and those "bits" were nowhere to be seen. I said to OH "I think its a girl, look its got no bits!" to which the grumpy old mare of a midwife moved the screen quickly lol That told me everything, and although I didnt rush out and buy pink just in case I was 99% certain it was a girl.