Early scan availability

B

Birdy

Registered User
Hi
I've just moved to HK from London and I am in early weeks of pregnancy (approx 8 weeks). As I have had a number of previous miscarriages, my doctor in the UK recommended an early scan. In London, there is a walk-in Early pregnancy unit at our local hospital which offers an internal scan (not ultrasound) from 7 weeks and I wondered if there was a similar service here in Hong Kong and if so, at which hospital?
As we are currently staying in a serviced apartment, I have not yet registared with a doctor as I don't know where we will be living, so I'm not sure what the procedure here is in terms of booking in with midwives and arrange scans.

Any help and advice would be very much appreciated as I have been feeling increasing anxious about this pregnancy already.
 
Birdy,

Congratulations on your pregnancy. I came from the UK and within a few weeks found out I was pregnant so completely understand your situation regarding where to go and what to do.
You have two options here and they depend on finances. If you have medical insurance then you can go down the private route and see a private OB (there are many listed here in the directory). That OB will book you in to private hospital for delivery and you can go to him/her for all of your appointments, checkups etc. They have all the best equipment and have ultrsound and internal scan machines in their offices. You can call them and make an appointment.(I got an appointment within 4 days of calling)

If you do not have insurance you can still see them but it cost quite a bit of money (I saw Dr Alexander Doo and he charged $900 for consultation and $1000 per scan if memory serves me correctly) He was lovely and I would highly reccomend him.

If you do not want to go down that route you can visit GP and have your pregnancy confirmed and then they will refer you to the maternal child health centres for your appointments and you can register with the public hospital closest to you, and they will do your scans etc but in tht sitution I am not sure what they do about early scan because they do the same as the UK with scans at 12 weeks and 20 weeks.

The public hospital has a high risk department for some pregnancies and they may perform more scans but I am not sure about that.

I hope I was clear in my answer but if you hve any more questions please ask and I will try to answer.

I had insurance but it did not cover a private hospital delivery so I saw Dr Doo throughout my pregnancy and then delivered at a public hospital, which is fine to do here too.

Hope this helps!
 
I forgot to mention that for the public hospital delivery, I had an emergency c-section and was in for 4 dys and the totl cost was $350 but for delivery in private hospitals it can cost from $40,000 upwards depending where you deliver.
 
however, if you do choose public hospital, you may be able to see the 'HIGH RISK DEPT' at Queen Mary Hospital.

I would try to phone them to see what the procedure is. After my last two terrible pregnancies (eventually seen by only the HRD at QMH, they gave me a letter stating that if i ever get pregnant again to go straight to them...no fluffing about.)
 
Why don't you go and see a private doctor for the early scan and if he says you need to be under special care arrange for QMH. This way you can put your mind to rest quickly and although it will cost you extra you will save yourself waiting and worry.At the same time you can contact Queen Mary and see if there is a long wait to see a specialist. I had a very high risk pregnancy and saw dr Doo mentioned above and thanks to his effort I am a mum today. Yes he is not cheap but he is very very good. If you don't have insurance you can always switch to public after the crucial first weeks.
BTW if you haven't got your id card yet you might have to pay in a public hospital too - but I'm not sure so double check. Best of luck.
 
Thanks for the replies and advice - I will certainly look into getting early scan sorted for peace of mind and then look into what my health plan covers in terms of maternity services.
Keeping fingers crossed that all will go ok with this pregnancy.
Am I right in thinking that doctors will perform blood tests to confirm pregnancy even if you have had positive home tests?
 
You shouldn't have any problem to get all what you ask for, blood test, scan... they usually do it from the very first weeks, no need to wait 12 weeks.
 
probably although at 8 weeks they might just do the scan as the heartbeat should be visible by then. I do seem to remember that to book a hospital you have to have a blood pregnancy test plus a scan - at least that was the case with Matilda hospital.
 
I had my pregnancy confirmed by a GP with a home pregnancy test kit, and when I had my appointment with Dr. Doo, he just performed an untrasound to confirm pregnancy also so I never had the blood tests.
 
I did have blood tests, but also because a past of recurrent miscarriages. For the scan, I got the first internal one a 7 weeks if I remember well....
 
Ultrasounds harm the baby.

Ultrasounds cause miscarriages. Why would you want to get one? How is looking at the baby going to prevent a miscarriage? How will it change the outcome? The answer is it will not and only can do harm. Do the research on ultrasounds. It is not "just sound waves" as doctors like to say. Did you know that the original researchers of ultrasound said not to use it on anyone under three years old? And that was on much less powerful machines way back when.
 
Congratulations! Some info below- hopefully helpful
1. Tests for pregnancy:
Both blood tests and urine tests check for b HCG (a chemical usually made only in pregnancy).
Most home urine tests are extremely sensitive and GPs use them to confirm pregnancy in the UK.
The blood test is also acurate. It checks the same chemical so there is little advantage to routinely using a blood sample over a urine sample. The blood test does give a number for the amount of b HCG (rather than just a "positive" or "negative" response), so can help check levels are increasing as expected. This is rarely needed, but sometimes used if early miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy is suspected.
2. Scans
A vaginal ultrasound scan can often detect a pregnancy very early (maybe at 5 weeks). You don't want to do it too early (certainly not before 6 weeks- maybe even wait a week or 2 beyond this if possible) because you risk not seeing anything and getting worried.
An abdominal ultrasound (scan on the tummy) may take a few extra weeks to be able to see the heartbeat because the pelvic bones get in the way!
As with the person who previously commented, some people have expressed concern about the safety of ultrasound in pregnancy. This has been studied a great deal and the medical establishment is confident ultrasound is not harmful and should continue to be used when needed in pregnancy. Some of the evidence is here: Obstetric ultrasound -- a comprehensive guide to ultrasound scans in pregnancy
 
The doctor might well want to do a blood test to check your HCG hormone levels and also your progesterone levels. It's worth asking about this, as some doctors think that early miscarriages can be due to low progesterone and will give you pessaries to increase the level. (It's unproven but certainly does not do any harm.) They would do this regularly if you had got pregnant through fertility treatment for example. I had these pessaries in my first pregnancy as I had already had two miscarriages.
 
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