How much time should my 20-week anatomy scan take?
An image from our social media post.
This blog post is written by Amy Porter, Tiny HeartsCan’s Founder and Executive Director.
”The 20-week anatomy scan - a time where many parents can finally learn for the FIRST time whether their baby is a boy or a girl. If you’re like me, perhaps you brought a soon-to-be big sibling to anxiously await the news - is it pink or blue? But then the clock keeps ticking and the sonographer hasn’t told you anything. It feels like an entire lifetime has passed. What’s the hold-up? What’s taking so long?! How long can it possibly take to tell me whether this baby is a boy or a girl? So let’s dig in…
How much time should my 20-week anatomy scan take?
This question is answered in three parts because there’s no universal or standardized answer.
The long and short of it is that it depends on the clinic you go to. British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan all utilize privatized radiology clinics to do obstetrical ultrasounds for the general public. Each company gets to decide how much time is allotted for each scan.
To contrast, Manitoba’s healthcare system has integrated these ultrasounds into their hospital infrastructure, so their timeframe will be standardized across the province. But…
Typically, 45 minutes is given for this important diagnostic exam. The anatomy scan measures and evaluates over 40 different points of baby’s body, including multiple views of baby’s heart - that’s like answering one critical question per minute!
On the other hand, some clinics may only provide 30 minutes to complete this exam. After speaking to many sonographers about how much time they think should be given for this ultrasound, many of them say that they would prefer to have upwards of 60 minutes to do a thorough, non-rushed examination.
International sonography guidelines continue to push for the best in care, adding extra measurements, views, and evaluations to this exam - which is super important - but some clinics have yet to expand their time-frames to reflect these added points.
Remember, Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) are the most common type of birth defect, affecting 1 in 100 infants. A prenatal CHD diagnosis can help families and medical professionals to manage prenatal cardiac conditions, and to prepare interventions for baby’s birth, giving their heart the best start possible.
Having a long examination likely means that your sonographer is being incredibly thorough - they are translating images that look like dots and squiggles into important information, capable of saving that child’s life. And while the sonographer isn’t legally allowed to tell patients whether something is right or wrong with baby’s anatomy, their recognition of “this does not look normal” is vital work to pregnant people everywhere.
It’s okay to be excited about discovering baby’s sex - it’s a great milestone to reach! Just remember that the 20-week anatomy scan is SO MUCH MORE than this one part of the evaluation - in my son’s case, it was a life-or-death scan.
I have a much greater appreciation now for what it is that sonographers do and how difficult their jobs are. So if you or someone you know is about to go for their 20-week anatomy scan, share about how much you HEART sonographers by teaching them about the importance of this scan.”
