Pregnancy scans, explained
Antenatal care involves several scans and blood tests, each looking for something different at a particular point in the pregnancy. Here is what each one is for, why it happens when it does, and — just as importantly — what it cannot tell you.
Screening tests and diagnostic tests are not the same thing
This is worth getting straight before any result arrives. A screening test — the NT scan, the marker blood tests — gives you a chance, like 1 in 800. It cannot tell you whether your baby has a condition. A diagnostic test gives a definite answer.
So a higher-risk screening result is not a diagnosis, and most women who get one go on to have a baby with no condition at all. What it does is open the door to a diagnostic test — and whether to have one is entirely your decision.
Questions people ask
A screening test gives you a chance — a number like 1 in 800 — that a condition is present. It cannot tell you whether your baby actually has it. A diagnostic test gives a definite answer. The NT scan and the marker blood tests are screening tests; that is why a higher-risk result is a reason to discuss further testing rather than a finding about your baby.
Nuchal translucency can only be measured between 11 weeks and 13 weeks and 6 days, and after that the fluid is normally reabsorbed so there is nothing left to measure. If the window has passed, second-trimester screening with the triple or quadruple marker test is available between 15 and 20 weeks. Speak to the doctor as early as you can either way.
No, and any clinic telling you otherwise is overselling it. It is a careful, systematic examination of the baby's anatomy and it detects a great deal — but some conditions are not visible on ultrasound at all, some develop later in pregnancy, and views depend on how the baby is lying. A reassuring scan is genuinely reassuring without being a guarantee.
Because growth is a trend rather than a single number. One scan tells you the baby's size today; it takes two or more, spaced apart, to show whether the baby is growing steadily along its own curve. That is what a growth scan is really looking at.
It is an estimate with a real margin of error, and the margin gets wider the bigger the baby is. It is used to spot babies growing much less or much more than expected — it is not a prediction of birth weight and should not be read as one.
No. You can book directly at Smart Care Polyclinic in Deira, and the scans are also included in our antenatal packages. If you are not sure which scan you are due, reception can work it out from your dates.