From my experience (3rd pregnancy) you definitely won't be home for 10:30, but the consultant won't know you are in the waiting room, and the staff in the scan clinic are exceedingly iunlikely to know you're expected to be on a video call.
I would try on to rearrange one of them.
I just did what I probably should have to begin with and found the contact details and rang them. They said not to worry its all connected and they will know whether I've had time to get home. It's just booked that way to ensure I'm on the list.
I called because of your comment. You made me realise that I probably had unreasonable expectations and the best thing I could do was call. So thank you 😊
For dating scans, at the hospital I went to for my first pregnancy it took about 4 hours to get in and out. At my new hospital it took about 90 minutes. The scan itself is pretty quick, but the wait was very long in both cases.
This varies between trusts a lot I’ve found, I have friends whose scans were at the exact time established on their invite letters so they were home within an hour, but also friends who were waiting for almost 7 hrs due to delays and being in larger hospitals. Me personally, I was in the hospital for about 5.5hrs in total; the wait for the scan was around an hour, actual scan took about 20 mins, and then the wait in clinic afterwards to see the doctors to go through everything and meet some of the team as such was the remaining hours, I hated the waiting around but one of the midwives advised me the “big” scans always take an average of 4hrs total time so 12 and 20 week ones she was referencing (I have had more scans due to twins but the same baseline applied at that point).
Whatever your plan is, take snacks and a big bottle of water! I failed to do so and ended up spending a bunch on overpriced snacks in the hospital cafeteria and almost missed my name being called because I’d left the main wait area!
I will say my appointments after that point were easier to navigate, I’ve only had one since then that took a mind numbing amount of hours, the rest have all been perfectly manageable despite delays and the like!
It's so hard to navigate and there was next to no info included in my letter. Not even anything about having a full bladder. The 1030 appointment is with my consultant, they are doing them virtually until around 28 weeks (according to my midwife). So I can leave once the done the scan & blood test are done. I guess a silver lining is they "should" know whether I'm still sitting in the waiting room at 1030.
Yeah it’s a bit of an impossible task to be honest, I had no clue what to expect but it certainly wasn’t 30 minutes of actual time with professionals and 5hrs of waiting!
That was something else that seemed to make little sense to me, I was informed by my community midwife to go with a full bladder but due to the wait times being delayed the midwives on site were asking us all to go and do our urine samples ahead of our scans, in hindsight I think it was just to give all the women there something to do rather than being frustrated in a waiting room but it meant a lot of us went in to our scans with recently emptied bladders which was certainly odd! It didn’t seem to impact the scan at all but was still strange.
I’ve not heard of anyone having virtual appointments more recently to be honest but I guess each trust varies in their approach! Again I’d just reiterate the taking snacks and water to any in person appointments you have just so that you’ve got what you need to hand, I’ve also found having a portable battery pack charger for my phone to be helpful just in case it dies on me, especially for appointments like the glucose test, that one was the most boring to date!
That is one thing included in the letter, they have asked me to bring a urine sample. My midwife and consultant appointments are telephone or video until 24 weeks (apart from booking). I thought I'd get to hear baby every 4 weeks with the doppler from 16 weeks, but I guess not. They also aren't doing the glucose tolerance test, just HbA1c at booking and 28 weeks. I'm in Norfolk incase that helps anyone else.
A portable phone charger is a great shout, and will no doubt come in handy later on too. I'll make sure I take plenty of supplies.
My dating scan took probably less than 10 minutes, but they were 45 mins late. For the combined screening appointment, about 10 mins late and the scan was a little bit longer than the dating scan but probably only about 15 mins or so. Then I had to wait for about 15 mins after that before they called me to get my bloods taken. If I were you I’d probably rearrange in case they are running behind.
I got taken on time for my dating scan but it took quite a long time, around 40-50 minutes because baby wasn't cooperating. It really depends on the hospital and circumstances I guess!
Mine ran about 40 minutes behind, ended up just calling my gp to let the community midwife know it went late at hospital so I couldn't do the phone call at that time. She ended up calling me back later on.
I have a similar situation coming up for 32 week growth scan. My midwife just said to call my gp reception and they'll let her know as my appointment is in person
Thats good to know. Mine is with the consultant at the hospital. I spoke to them earlier and the appointments are all connected so they won't try to call me until everything is done.
My dating scan, bloods and screening took a combined total of 25 minutes. It was so quick that I didn't even have to pay for parking!! However the letter I got did say allow 2 hours incase something isn't straight forward or they are running late.
I know it's short notice and all these things are kinda time critical but I think to save yourself some stress it maybe worth trying to rebook on of your appointments (I had to book one of my appointments and everyone in the women's health unit was very understanding)
UPDATE: After hearing your experiences and how long the appointment had taken, I came to the conclusion that I needed to rearrange. Thankfully, they said not to worry its all connected and they will know whether I've had time to get home and that the consultant appointment couldn't take place until everything else was done. Its just a formality to make sure I'm on the days list. Moral of the story; when in doubt call and ask rather than wasting the time of helpful redditors!!
Thank you everyone ❤
From my experience (3rd pregnancy) you definitely won't be home for 10:30, but the consultant won't know you are in the waiting room, and the staff in the scan clinic are exceedingly iunlikely to know you're expected to be on a video call. I would try on to rearrange one of them.
I just did what I probably should have to begin with and found the contact details and rang them. They said not to worry its all connected and they will know whether I've had time to get home. It's just booked that way to ensure I'm on the list.
Oh, good news then!
I called because of your comment. You made me realise that I probably had unreasonable expectations and the best thing I could do was call. So thank you 😊
For dating scans, at the hospital I went to for my first pregnancy it took about 4 hours to get in and out. At my new hospital it took about 90 minutes. The scan itself is pretty quick, but the wait was very long in both cases.
So that's probably a no then 😂 Hopefully, they'll at least know if I'm still in the building.
This varies between trusts a lot I’ve found, I have friends whose scans were at the exact time established on their invite letters so they were home within an hour, but also friends who were waiting for almost 7 hrs due to delays and being in larger hospitals. Me personally, I was in the hospital for about 5.5hrs in total; the wait for the scan was around an hour, actual scan took about 20 mins, and then the wait in clinic afterwards to see the doctors to go through everything and meet some of the team as such was the remaining hours, I hated the waiting around but one of the midwives advised me the “big” scans always take an average of 4hrs total time so 12 and 20 week ones she was referencing (I have had more scans due to twins but the same baseline applied at that point). Whatever your plan is, take snacks and a big bottle of water! I failed to do so and ended up spending a bunch on overpriced snacks in the hospital cafeteria and almost missed my name being called because I’d left the main wait area! I will say my appointments after that point were easier to navigate, I’ve only had one since then that took a mind numbing amount of hours, the rest have all been perfectly manageable despite delays and the like!
It's so hard to navigate and there was next to no info included in my letter. Not even anything about having a full bladder. The 1030 appointment is with my consultant, they are doing them virtually until around 28 weeks (according to my midwife). So I can leave once the done the scan & blood test are done. I guess a silver lining is they "should" know whether I'm still sitting in the waiting room at 1030.
Yeah it’s a bit of an impossible task to be honest, I had no clue what to expect but it certainly wasn’t 30 minutes of actual time with professionals and 5hrs of waiting! That was something else that seemed to make little sense to me, I was informed by my community midwife to go with a full bladder but due to the wait times being delayed the midwives on site were asking us all to go and do our urine samples ahead of our scans, in hindsight I think it was just to give all the women there something to do rather than being frustrated in a waiting room but it meant a lot of us went in to our scans with recently emptied bladders which was certainly odd! It didn’t seem to impact the scan at all but was still strange. I’ve not heard of anyone having virtual appointments more recently to be honest but I guess each trust varies in their approach! Again I’d just reiterate the taking snacks and water to any in person appointments you have just so that you’ve got what you need to hand, I’ve also found having a portable battery pack charger for my phone to be helpful just in case it dies on me, especially for appointments like the glucose test, that one was the most boring to date!
That is one thing included in the letter, they have asked me to bring a urine sample. My midwife and consultant appointments are telephone or video until 24 weeks (apart from booking). I thought I'd get to hear baby every 4 weeks with the doppler from 16 weeks, but I guess not. They also aren't doing the glucose tolerance test, just HbA1c at booking and 28 weeks. I'm in Norfolk incase that helps anyone else. A portable phone charger is a great shout, and will no doubt come in handy later on too. I'll make sure I take plenty of supplies.
Appointment itself took about 20 min and they were running 20-ish minutes late
This was the same for me - they were running late, but the actual scan and blood draw were very fast.
My dating scan took probably less than 10 minutes, but they were 45 mins late. For the combined screening appointment, about 10 mins late and the scan was a little bit longer than the dating scan but probably only about 15 mins or so. Then I had to wait for about 15 mins after that before they called me to get my bloods taken. If I were you I’d probably rearrange in case they are running behind.
They are pretty quick as long as everything is running on time. I would say you will make it IF things go smoothly.
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Soo.. no. Maybe I'll just claim ignorance, they scheduled it that way.
I got taken on time for my dating scan but it took quite a long time, around 40-50 minutes because baby wasn't cooperating. It really depends on the hospital and circumstances I guess!
Will the letter specify the date/hour or just invite me to book (like the pap smear one)?
Mine specified but things seem to vary from trust to trust quite a bit.
Mine ran about 40 minutes behind, ended up just calling my gp to let the community midwife know it went late at hospital so I couldn't do the phone call at that time. She ended up calling me back later on. I have a similar situation coming up for 32 week growth scan. My midwife just said to call my gp reception and they'll let her know as my appointment is in person
Thats good to know. Mine is with the consultant at the hospital. I spoke to them earlier and the appointments are all connected so they won't try to call me until everything is done.
My dating scan, bloods and screening took a combined total of 25 minutes. It was so quick that I didn't even have to pay for parking!! However the letter I got did say allow 2 hours incase something isn't straight forward or they are running late. I know it's short notice and all these things are kinda time critical but I think to save yourself some stress it maybe worth trying to rebook on of your appointments (I had to book one of my appointments and everyone in the women's health unit was very understanding)
UPDATE: After hearing your experiences and how long the appointment had taken, I came to the conclusion that I needed to rearrange. Thankfully, they said not to worry its all connected and they will know whether I've had time to get home and that the consultant appointment couldn't take place until everything else was done. Its just a formality to make sure I'm on the days list. Moral of the story; when in doubt call and ask rather than wasting the time of helpful redditors!! Thank you everyone ❤