Get to know more about us before your visit
Being a specialist midwife sonographer working for the NHS up to March 2021, I realised that what women want/need and what can actually be provided by the NHS during pregnancy is quite different. After a spell of private scanning I decided to open the Well Woman and Baby Room in October 2013 (with the huge support of my family) so that I could give women the reassurance and confidence they need to help and support them though pregnancy within their timescale of need. Pregnancy can make you feel incredibly vulnerable and I wanted (and want) to give you an unrushed, supported and informed scan experience.
I also wanted to give women access to gynaecological and fertility scans so that they could see us if they were having fertility treatment abroad or even in the UK. Being able to have these scans performed close to home, fitting your timescale can remove that additional pressure of where to go!
In November 2016 we were thrilled to open our second clinic in Haywards Heath, somehow still managing to answer the calls, and complete the endless admin!
After nearly 4 years of being the Well Woman and Baby Room we decided to simplify our name (a name I love but too wordy and despite our fab reputation not always remembered – often ‘do you mean Lindsay in Shoreham?’) so we are now ‘The Scanning Room’.
I started my midwifery degree in 1999 at Northumbia University in Newcastle and ended up staying there for another six years after I qualified with a BSc (Hons) in Midwifery in 2002. As a rotational midwife I worked at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, moving between the ante-natal, post-natal and labour wards. I loved wherever I worked and then an advert for ultrasound training within the hospital was circulated and the more I looked into it the more I liked the speciality. In August 2006, I started my PGc in Obstetric Ultrasound at the University of Teeside, qualifying in 2007 and splitting my time as a midwife and sonographer.
In 2008, I moved back south and started working as a midwife at St Richards in Chichester but missed scanning too much and moved to Portsmouth QA Hospital to take up a role as a sonographer full time. In 2011, the commute to Portsmouth became too time consuming and I started work at the Royal Sussex County, Brighton where I worked until March of 2021 scanning within the ultrasound department. It was here I completed my PGd in Medical Ultrasound in 2013. I decided to leave the NHS in 2021 after 20 years and 5 months all in! Like a lot of people the Covid year has really made me assess what I was doing and where my happiness lay so I decided I wanted my focus to be The Scanning Room – another chapter begins!
Despite scanning full time, I maintain my registration with the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) as a midwife, keeping up to date with all mandatory training. So despite not actually delivering babies any more if one decided to make an appearance I am ready! This also allows me to give you quite a few top tips to make pregnancy easier as well.
During my time off I have worked alongside the Liverpool school of tropical medicine and the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology who sends doctors and midwives to teach other medical professionals in developing countries. I have been so lucky, my midwifery has taken me to Tanzania, Pakistan, Somaliland, Ghana and Kenya teaching obstetric emergencies to local doctors and midwives and ultimately helping to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates (something I am very proud of personally and professionally).
We will always do our utmost for you, offering you high quality healthcare. If we feel your need is with the NHS and not with us we will advise you of that and refer you on as appropriate. We will never suggest unnecessary scans, in fact we will aim to empower you further to believe in your own abilities of growing your baby beautifully!
We are very proud of what we give to our women and their families. We work to high standards with up to date, evidence based policies and guidelines, embracing my NHS training and taking it further with excellent customer care.
The health and development of you and your baby is our priority, we don’t stack them high and sell them cheap because we want you to have the best that we can give at all stages of your pregnancy.
We are registered with Care Quality Commission – the independent regulator of health and social care in England. Any sonographers that work alongside me are fully qualified sonographers, whether from a nursing/midwifery or radiography background. These are my NHS colleagues who I trust and know will treat you with the high standards that I employ.
Kayleigh
Daisy
Lucy
Ivy
We will create a detailed report for you with everything that we have seen and also give you pictures of your little bean.
Throughout the scan we will be talking about what your baby is doing, how it is developing and what it can do – such a lovely insight into your baby’s world.
If we sadly find that the things are not progressing as they should we discuss everything that we can see, giving you plenty of time to ask questions. We create a report and contact your local early pregnancy unit (EPU) for a follow up appointment.
Usually performed over the tummy as transabdominal scan, for this reason having a moderately full bladder will help to see the pregnancy more clearly in the early weeks.
We will measure your little one crown to rump to get an estimated due date and assess that everything is developing normally for that number of weeks. We will also confirm that the pregnancy is in the right place within the uterus and check that the uterus and ovaries appear normal.
We also have the option of performing an internal scan if we don’t get great views over the tummy. This is entirely safe in early pregnancy and will be discussed with you as an option where needed.
For most women they just want, or need to see their baby and confirm that the pregnancy is real! For others they may have sadly experienced a miscarriage and just need the peace of mind and reassurance that an early scan can bring. Time really seems to drag in the first trimester, seeing is certainly believing!
An early pregnancy scan will confirm the presence of a heartbeat, diagnose a single or multiple pregnancy and establish an estimated due date. It can be performed from 7 weeks of pregnancy, before this time it is not always possible to see the fetal heart beating but can confirm the pregnancy is in the right place and developing as it should for the number of weeks you are.
We also see women who have had bleeding and can’t be seen quickly in their local early pregnancy unit, or those that have had a loss of symptoms and are concerned – we can provide you with a service that fully assess how you are progressing and will give you all the information you need.
This early scan is not routinely available on the NHS and does not require a GP or Midwife referral.