In my OB practice, the last ultrasound is your 18 week, unless you have issues. My question is after the 18 week mark, how do they figure out if you DO have issues (ie, low amniotic fluid, breach position, placenta previa, cervical incompetence, low baby weight, etc). Just curious!
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I was diagnosed w/ Low fluid from my anatomy scan and had follow up tests done to double check everything.
As far as position and size, they can tell that by feeling the baby and measuring the belly. The position of the placenta is figured out by the anatomy scan too, so that shouldn't be a worry either. -
@prettylizy: That's what I figured.
Though, my sister didn't find out she had cervical incompetence (short cervix) until an ultrasound at 28 weeks (she delivered her first child early and demanded a later ultrasound with her second even though at her anatomy scan, the cervix was fine).
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EVerything @prettylizy said!
My OB would measure my belly every time I visited. At one visit it was larger than normal so he scheduled an ultrasound.
Everything was fine (I was just fat) but I got to see my LO again so I was happy. -
Same as above- my last scheduled ultrasound was at 19 weeks (we also paid for a 4D at 30 weeks cause we wanted to see him again and to help me settle on a name). At my 36 week appointment, my doc said the baby was measuring smaller than in the past 2 weeks and ordered an ultrasound to see how big he was. He figured it was because the baby had dropped low in my pelvis... which he had.
It is amazing how your body will respond when things aren't right, my SIL was showing signs of early labor so her doc upped her monitoring quite a bit to keep an eye on things based on what her body was doing.
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i'm considered high risk, so i get way too many u/s. i'm sure the doctor would know. they do measure the belly to make sure it's the "right" size. i'm sure if you're not sizing correctly, they'll order something. i'm surprised they don't do an u/s around the 37th week or so when you're full-term so they know if everything's okay before they come out.
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My doctor actually did a quick u/s in the room at a couple of my last visits. It wasn't thorough like the anatomy scan, but it was always nice to get a quick peek. It's a bummer to hear that more places don't do that!
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At my u/s yesterday (20 weeks), they discovered I have a thin band of tissue in my bag of waters (I don't remember the scary name they used for it). It typically only presents a problem early in the pregnancy (getting tangled with the growing skin and causing limb deformities) and everything looked fine with baby girl,, but my OB said they might do a later u/s just to make sure everything still looks good. I think that they "say" your last u/s is at 20 weeks, but from what I'm hearing from friends and family, very rarely is that actually your last u/s. I think they just do it to reduce the number of u/s us pregnant ladies ask for so we can see the baby again!
Everything was fine (I was just fat) but I got to see my LO again so I was happy. Reply
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7 comments