DH & I are officially TTC (yay!) so of course now I have all sorts of things running through my mind. Today I had my annual exam & Dr. H. was wonderful as usual. She said typically the first appointment is made around 10 weeks so you can also hear the heartbeat. I was chatting with the nurse too & she mentioned that typically you won't have an ultrasound until 18 weeks.
So my question for other WHS patients, have you found this timeline to be fairly accurate. The impatient side of me doesn't want to wait until almost 1/2 way to have an ultrasound.
PS- Sorry if I sound whiny, I trust WHS & I'm sure they have this timeline for a reason.
Re: Womens Health Services question
They have seen me for my first appointment at 8-10 weeks. They didn't listen for the heartbeat at my first appointment because you can't usually hear it that early and they didn't want unnecessary fear for me. It probably depends on who you see.
They have always offered me the 1st trimester screening, which is done around 11-12 weeks if I remember correctly. That involved an ultrasound. If you don't do that one, your 1st ultrasound is 18-20 weeks.
Good luck!
It's very very common with a regular pregnancy to only have one ultrasound at 20wks. Like the pp said, they do offer the NT scan at 12wks though and you get to hear the heartbeat at every visit. Also, insurance won't cover your ultrasound if it's ot medically necessary. That's why they do that.
I always get an ultrasound right away because of my tilted uterus and high risk status, but you might also get one if you didn't know the exact date you conceived.
With my first pregnancy 2 years ago they told me to make my first appointment between 8 and 10 weeks, they tried to listen for the heartbeat but I did not hear it until my 2nd or maybe even 3rd appointment. Back then they did not do the 1st trimester screening and gave me a little hasle over the 20 week u/s saying it might not be covered by my insurance as being "medically necessary."
Fast forward 2 years and this time, they told me they don't make first appointments until 11 weeks. At that time I went in and we were unsure of due date so they ordered an u/s to confirm. It turns out we were within the window to do the first trimester screening at the same time (11-13 weeks) when we scheduled it so we did those both as one u/s though they would have been 2 different ones if we had been measuring before 11 weeks. Then the second u/s was scheduled at 19 weeks. They said they like to do it around 20 weeks but since my appointments would have been at 18 or 22 weeks, they moved my 18 week appointment back a week and did the u/s at the same time.
Hope this helps, good luck with TTC!