What to expect when you arrive

Your experience will start from the moment you arrive. We have dedicated parking at the rear of our scan centre in the car park that we share with Newbie & Me with parking free for our customers. 

As you enter our scan centre, you will be greeted by one of the team who will offer you and your guest refreshments to relax whilst you complete your consent form. Whilst you're reviewing your consent form, please don't hesitate to ask any questions.

We aim to scan you as close to your appointment time as possible, however on some occasions baby's don't want to let us see them in the ideal positions and this can cause us to run a little behind as we don't give up and will try out best for you. Our receptionist will let you know if this is the case on arrival, and are well trained to manage the flow of appointments.

If you would like a DVD or Keepsake bear, it's essential that you check the options on your consent form, as these are recorded during your scan.

What to expect during your scan

When you enter the scan room, you will be greeted by one of our experienced fully qualified sonographers, who will confirm your details and the scan that you will receive. Our bed is fully automated, so if you need it lowering to get on, please don't hesitate to let the sonographer know; ur gel is also warmed, ready for you - we know it's not nice feeling cold gel on your tummy.

During the first few minutes of your scan, the sonographer will be assessing the baby and his or her position, you will be able to see everything on our large screen TV, and the sonographer will explain what she is doing as she goes along. If your baby is not in the right position, please do not be offended, but the sonographer will ask you to return to reception where our receptionists are trained to look after you, and are armed with a few tricks to help encourage your baby to move into a better position with the aid of drinks, sweets, birthing ball, or even duck food and a pleasant walk around the nearby lovely, Victoria Park. Asking you to return to reception at this point allows us to keep following scans running as close to their original time, and allows us to fit you back in between scans. Rest assured, if you're asked to leave the scan room because your baby is in the wrong position for the best scan for you, we won't count this time towards the scan time that you have booked.

Typically, following a first scan, you will wait a minimum of 30 minutes, and then we'll check baby's position again.

If baby still isn't the best position on a second attempt, we will repeat the process often trying another method to help baby to move from those available to us. Usually, you will wait another 30 minutes this second time to allow baby a good chance to move around, and allow any sugar to pass through to baby and kick in. There are lots of factors that affect whether baby will move, and some times a bit of patience helps with this.

If after 3 attempts checking if baby is in the right position for a successful scan, baby is still being shy, and Face+ is included in your package then we will offer you to come back at to a later appointment for a rescan for free of charge. If Face+ isn't included in your package, you may be offered to upgrade on the day to include this.

If, as is most often the case, we're successful in helping your baby to move into a better position, then during that scan you will receive the full scan time that is included within your package.

Whilst baby is in the right position, your sonographer will be checking the wellbeing of your baby, which will provide you the opportunity to view your baby in 2D (black and white). We'll check their size to make sure they're growing properly, and as long as baby has developed enough, you'll get to see and hear your baby's heart beat. If your scan is for a 3D/4D Bonding Scan, we'll show your baby in 4D (which is real-time moving 3D) with HD iLive.

If at any point whilst our sonographer is showing you around your baby, you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask, and if you have any concerns during, or after your scan, please speak to either the sonographer in the room or any of our highly trained receptionists to will be more than happy to explain things or help to put your mind at ease. It's normal to not be sure whether you can see an arm, or leg at first, let the sonographer know if you're unsure so that she can show you these and you can get the most out of your scan.

What to expect after your scan

Once your scan is complete, our receptionists will look after you again. If you had a full bladder for your scan, then you'll likely need the toilet, please don't be shy to ask for directions if you haven't already found it, and then relax.

Within a few minutes of your scan completing your images will be loaded automatically onto our secure online photo locker where you'll be able to browse them from home, or even from your smartphone. We'll load this up on one of our Apple iPads so that you can browse them in private and choose any images that you like printing whilst you're in the scan centre.

If you have booked our standard package this includes 2x extra large (6" x 8") prints as standard, this is double the size of most private scan centres, and more than four times the size of the thermal prints provided at your NHS appointments, so they're excellent to put into an album or photo frame. Help yourself to some more drinks, sit back, and browse through your images to select those that you want printing.

If you chose to include a DVD, Keepsake Bear, or Gender Reveal Balloon/Cannon, these will need to be prepared, our team will take care of these whilst you're browsing your images.

Do I need to bring anything?

Beyond payment if you want to buy any extras - No.

As we are not part of the NHS, we do not need you to bring your hospital notes with you. For many of our scans, we recommend a full bladder as this can help baby into a better position for scanning. Typically this should be 2-3 pints of water, 20-30 minutes before your appointment time to allow time for it to fill your bladder. If your bladder isn't full enough when you arrive, we do have plenty of drinks on arrival, but bear in mind that it will take 20-30 minutes from arrival before any drinks start to fill your bladder. We don't recommend drinking cold drinks before your arrival for your appointment. Fizzy/sugary drinks can help to wake baby up before your appointment, but ideally drink these warm or at room temperature rather than straight from the fridge.