Children attending scans

We recognise that attending a scan is an important event for you and your partner, but we would respectfully request that you do not bring children with you for the following reasons:

• A scan is a clinical examination to check the health of your baby and exclude abnormalities. The sonographer needs full concentration to ensure optimum assessment of your baby.

• Children often find scans boring or upsetting because 90% of the pictures on the screen are sectional images of the baby’s anatomy and do not make sense to a child’s eyes.

• If your child is upset or bored, the sonographer’s concentration may be affected and you and your partner will not be able to enjoy the scan.       

• On the rare occasion that a problem is suspected, the presence of a child is very distressing for all concerned.

We do understand that in exceptional circumstances, lack of childcare may mean that bringing a child is unavoidable.