You?ll never forget the first time you see your baby on that glowing black-and-white ultrasound screen. It?s exciting and scary, and it?s a relief to find out exactly what?s happening inside your body. We asked the experts all you need to know about that six-week ultrasound or first ultrasound appointment.
When is the first ultrasound during pregnancy"
Your doctor will usually wait until at least six weeks to perform the first ultrasound. However, if your periods are irregular or you?ve had a history of complications, such as an ectopic pregnancy, a miscarriage, pain, or bleeding, your doctor might send you for an earlier scan, says Susan Kinnear, manager of diagnostic imaging at Hamilton Health Sciences Centre and director at large for Sonography Canada. Generally, if your period is regular and you know the ?guesstimated? date of conception, you won?t have your first ultrasound until you are closer to the end of the first trimester, at 11 to 14 weeks. (Remember, pregnancy is calculated from the first day of your last menstrual period.) What happens at the six-week ultrasound"
If your first ultrasound is earlier than seven weeks, the baby is often so small that it?s hard to see with a traditional abdominal ultrasound. Instead, you will have a transvaginal ultrasound, where they insert a tampon-length transducer (ultrasound wand) into the vagina to see the fetus. ?Vaginal ultrasound is the best way to do the first-trimester ultrasound,? says Doug Wilson, a professo...