"Rushed Maternity Ultrasound"

Having already had 2 children at this hospital I had the same high expectations 3rd time around! Having unfortunately experienced some bleeding early on I was relived (after a few visits to The Peggy Cole Unit) to find out that everything was progressing with my pregnancy.

My 12 week scan went as expected - it was carried out by a doctor for no apparent reason, he was thorough and explained everything to us.

Unfortunately my 20 week scan was not such a great experience. My appointment was scheduled for 2pm. A telephone call from the department was received that day @ 11am saying that the scan needed to be cancelled due to staff shortages. I told them that it was not acceptable to cancel at such short notice and my husband and I had both taken time off from work to attend the appointment. After my insistence it was agreed that my appointment would go ahead. I would have been more understanding to the situation if it had been first thing in the morning.

We arrived for the appointment and we were shortly shown into the scan room by a trainee sonographer - who was lovely, and a more experienced sonographer. I felt the scan very rushed, the screen was turned away for the majority of the scan so that I could hardly see, let alone my husband and daughter who were sat beside me.

The whole scan felt rushed, I found the sonographer rude and abrupt. I didn't get shown the different parts of my baby and when asked if I wanted to know the sex, to which I replied ''no'' the sonographer replied ''good''. The trainee needed to get some pictures of the baby in certain positions and he was courteous and explained how they would be used which was great. When the scan was over we got handed the notes and told we could leave. We weren't reassured that everything was OK or anything.

I still feel very upset by the whole experience, I feel like I've been robbed of the opportunity to see my baby and have the time afforded that I have had in my previous pregnancies. It is supposed to be a special time for us all and the point of taking our youngest daughter was to help her feel involved....but she didn't have a clue as she couldn't see anything.

Shameful that such a fantastic maternity service has left us feeling so very let down, doesn't fill us with much hope for the rest of the experience I'm afraid.