20-week u/s! What questions should I ask?

[tinynyota]

I'm having my 20 week u/s tomorrow (Thurs) and I'm reeeally hoping I get a nice, helpful tech who's willing to talk about what s/he sees and answer questions. I have a real fear of being in a silent room for an hour, not knowing what's going on, fearing the worst, getting tongue tied and nervous and then not getting the info I want/need! I know a radiologist will be coming in at the end, but I don't want to spend the whole time before then quietly praying that things look good.

It's likely everything will be fine, but does anyone have some good questions that I can ask the tech that might communicate that I'm well-informed, and that they should feel free to talk about what they see? Cord insertion? Placenta? Certain measurements? I'd love to put together a little basic cheat sheet for when I get too nervous to open my mouth and ask!!

[MaerynPearl]

According to my tech (who was VERY friendly) hospital policy is, she can point out what she is looking at but NOT tell me if things are okay or not.

She did answer, though, when I specifically asked about the placement of my placenta (low and to the front, though honestly I already knew that) but she was NOT able to tell me it was Previa (it was, its moved since but that was info my doctor had to give me)

When I went back at 27 weeks she was able to tell me, in the room, that the previa was def. resolved.

As for all the results (measurements, etc.) my own way of going about it is asking my doctor for a copy of those records afterward. You are entitled to your own medical records and I actually found out more from that than I did even with how nice and chatty my US tech was!

[Baby~Braatens~Mama]

OOO! I asked a bunch of questions, and at first my tech was not very receptive and seemed a little irked, but by the time it was over she was joking with us and voluntarily telling us what she was measuring. She could not tell us whether the measurements were normal, I think that is pretty standard, only the radiologist can "tell" and they don't usually perform the ultrasound.

I can't tell you what questions to ask, but I am positive once you get in there and see your baby on the screen, you will become curious as to what the tech is doing with her wand, what she is measuring and so on. Congratulations! My first ultrasound brought happy tears to my eyes! There is a baby, inside me, and he is happy, healthy and comfy!

Good luck to you, mama!

[lillymonster]

My tech was not allowed to say anything, I was told I had to talk to the doctor. When I had my n/t us, it was the same way. I went to 2 different places on different sides of the state, so it must be a policy.

[shoefairy3]

I agree with the above ladies. The Techs usually can't say anything except if it is a boy or girl. I had a partial previa with #4 and the tech kept going in and out of the room. It was terrifying b/c I thought something terrible was wrong. She kept saying "I just need to check if I've got everything measured right" My previa fixed itself btw.

[karen1968]

Techs are NOT doctors, and as such are not legally allowed to diagnose - i.e., tell you if something is "normal" or if you have previa, etc. Most are nice enough to tell you "Now we're looking at the femur" or "Here's the cord insertion" or some such. (I've heard horror stories of completely silent techs, though.) At my u/s a couple of weeks ago, she was able to tell me the placenta was anterior and about where it was located, but wouldn't answer my question about previa. Otherwise, she was very chatty. The radiologist who came in at the end actually picked up the wand and did a little scanning, telling me about the previa (and answered my questions about it) and confirmed the baby is a girl.

[MamaPhD]

I agree with everyone above. With DD, the tech was super nice and talked through with me and DH, like "this is the arm, this is the nose", etc. She also told us DD was a girl. But that was it. I talked to my doctor about the measurements and stuff a few days later at my regular appointment. Also at my hospital the set up is such that the mom cannot see the u/s monitor, which was such a pain. I had to really strain my neck to get glimpses, while Dh was oooing and aaaaing. The tech said this is to discourage too many questions during the scan (because tech can't really answer them), but com'on!

Couple of things about the 20 week u/s nobody warned me about...
1. They tell you to come after drinking water so I totally was distracted by how badly I wanted to pee the whole time!!!!! And the tech is pushing your lower belly the whole time - ACK!! Mine took a while (see below) so I was eventually allowed to go pee and come back for more u/s but man what a torture!
2. As part of 20 week u/s they had to get a picture of DD's heart and she was not at the right position, so the tech had me go on all fours for 10 min, then came back to check, then had me on my side with head lowered for 10 min, etc, etc. So I ended up doing these really weird poses for like 30-40 minutes just to get that one last picture! Eventually DD cooperated but otherwise I would have had to come back another day, phew.

Good luck on your scan!

ETA: It takes a while! Mine took about 1.5-2 hours total...

[tinynyota]

Thank you all! It helps to know better what to expect. Having had a bunch of early u/s (both for this preg and for losses) I know that techs are not in a position to diagnose, but I'm glad to know that most seem willing to at least talk about what they are doing. I have had some awful, silent u/s experiences where I knew the tech wasn't saying anything because there wasn't anything positive to say, and very little to measure anyway. This one will hopefully be completely different - and maybe even fun!

I'll let you know how it goes!

[xekomaya]

Good luck! I've only had one u/s and the tech was super chatty and not at all afraid to tell us what she was measuring, what # they were looking for/how big it was, and if it looked good. I thought it was hysterical she seemed REALLY pleased with my cervical length lol.

[WifeofAnt]

Yeah our tech could tell us what she was measuring but didn't really say anything good/bad about the different parts. The only one she really did make a comment on was the face/cleft palate (which looks totally normal but I could see that for myself). We did talk a bit about the baby's positions, he kept rolling around so our scan took absolutely forever. We even had to walk down to the cafeteria and back trying to get him to move 'just' right to get a better look at his heart. Little booger butt...

[tinynyota]

U/s went really well!
Here's how mine went in case anyone else is wondering about the process:

Our tech was very sweet and was happy to explain what we were looking at, what she was measuring, etc. Like you've all said, she didn't make qualifying statements or confirm that anything was good or bad (well, she did say HB looked good, and that a 4-chambered heart was good!). However, I hadn't realized that for many of the measurements the screen would show the corresponding gestational age along with the actual measurement, so I was able to tell that growth was on track without asking her to speculate. That helped a lot!! Overall, baby was very cooperative and the tech got all the meas. she needed. She asked if we wanted to know sex, which we did, so we found out we're having a girl!

After the tech left, a labor/delivery doc who was training to get better on u/s asked if he could take some measurements. While that might have been annoying, I was actually pleased because I took that to mean everything looked normal. If there was anything troubling about the initial scan, I would be very surprised if they let someone just casually 'practice' on me while I waited for the perinatologist. I could be wrong about that, but that's how I took it at the time.

Finally, the peri came in and looked a little more and confirmed that it was a very normal u/s with no red flags. Of course, he had to reiterate that an u/s couldn't pick up all problems, like Downs, and that I could get an amnio if I wanted to be sure, and 'was I comfortable with the odds I'd been given at the first tri screen?', etc etc.
Anyway, despite that reminder, I left feeling very reassured and positive about the whole experience.
Thanks again for helping me know what to expect!

[Jules09]

[Qbear'smama]

That's awesome, Tinynyota! My US is next Wednesday, I am excited to find out the sex which we didn't last time. Congrats on your girl!!

[karen1968]

Hey, tinynyota, I see we are in the same town. Where did you have your scan done? It sounds remarkably like mine

[tinynyota]

Hi Karen, I meant to ask you the same thing!
This scan was done at OHSU Perinatology. Where did you go?

[hollytheteacher]

whoa

Is it standard in other places for a "tech" to do the 20 week u/s????

Here, the midwife and doctors do it and tell you everything!!! I would be really upset if i had to sit through an u/s and they didn't tell me anything! That is nuts! Here it is a big to do. Like the dr will say "here are the kidneys, they are measuring normal...this is what we look for...etc."

[MaerynPearl]

Originally Posted by hollytheteacher

Is it standard in other places for a "tech" to do the 20 week u/s????

Here, the midwife and doctors do it and tell you everything!!! I would be really upset if i had to sit through an u/s and they didn't tell me anything! That is nuts! Here it is a big to do. Like the dr will say "here are the kidneys, they are measuring normal...this is what we look for...etc."

I would be upset if my midwife or doctor did it as they are not as trained in specifically using US to spot a lot of the stuff a tech or radiologist would

[hollytheteacher]

Originally Posted by MaerynPearl

I would be upset if my midwife or doctor did it as they are not as trained in specifically using US to spot a lot of the stuff a tech or radiologist would

It's just how it's done here

I LOVE it because they know you your whole pregnancy and explain everything to you while you are right there.