When to Schedule Ultrasound (History of Miscarriage)

After having had two miscarriages, my OB/GYN scheduled me as soon as it would be able to be seen (earlier than typical) with transvaginal sonograms, and then saw me weekly or bi-weekly for ultrasounds until I hit the second trimester. I felt utterly cared for.

the thing with early miscarriage is that they cant do anything about it. they cannot stop a miscarriage. there is no treatment.

whether you have an ultrasound at 6 weeks or 8 weeks is really no diffference. for my second pregnancy -- I had one ultrasound at about 7weeks for age and dates (wasnt sure how preg I was) an ultrasound at 16 weeks with my amnio. and that was it..

My sister suffered 5 miscarriages. The doctor did always want to see her earlier. However, they said the blood work is more important then an ultrasound. She never got an ultrasound until 8-10 weeks, but the did keep an eye on her blood work. They were able to actually prevent a miscarriage from happening, because the blood work showed progesterone problems. Can you call your Dr. and ask them when they'd prefer to see you? You can just do the blood work and wait on the ultrasound.

Like Lisa O said you can't do anything about a miscarriage if there was a problem so why not enjoy the holidays and let God keep your little one in his care and just wait and see? I hope you have happy holidays. After the holidays work in a sonogram when you can and go from there.

What did your Doctor say?
Each Doctor may vary, but there usually is the sonogram at about 5/6 weeks. Are you talking about the transvaginal sonogram, or an Ultrasound?

The Doc, should be telling you when.

Wouldn't your doctor's office have the best recommendation?

It is rare to get a good ultrasound at 5 to 6 weeks, usually you will only see a sac and maybe a fetal pole. I would wait until week 8 or later when you will be able to see a heartbeat.

Another reason for an early ultrasound would be a history of ectopic pregnancy - in this case the US could confirm that the embryo is located where it should be.

If you should go in early depends on the circumstances of your previous miscarriages. Usually doctors will only consider additional testing/prenatal visits if you had at least 3 aborts at similar stages in the pregnancy or for similar reasons, if the reason could be determined. At this early stage of pregnancy a series of blood HCG levels are more indicative of a viable pregnancy than an ultrasound, so you could consider that.

Also if you have previously lost pregnancies due to low progesterone (a blood test can determine this) you doctor may consider putting you on a progesterone supplementing therapy. This is not terribly common though.

Other than that there is really not very much that can be done to avoid early miscarriages.

I know that people do not like to hear this, but the majority of early miscarriages occur because the embryo did not properly develop. Usually these embryos do not have the capacity to develop into a viable fetus even if we had a way to stop a miscarriage.

I would suggest that you call your doctor and simply ask when they would like you to come in. Good luck!

Hi Jane-

I had 4 miscarriages and they had me go in for the first one as soon as I found out I was pregnant. But that was with my history and issues. If you were able to wait until after you get back from your vacation, and not be a nervous wreck during it, then I would wait. As one of the previous people mentioned, if you are going to miscarry, it's going to happen regardless. I have had two miscarriages after I had the ultrasound.

But that said, I would call my Dr. and aks what they said.

Good luck to you!!!

Talk to your doctor. I think you should do what you feel best doing.
That said, I was in similar circumstances and found that the close monitoring didn't yield any helpful information; at that point, either there's a heartbeat or there isn't. (From my perspective, the only decision I would have had a chance to make was to have had a D&C or not. My doctor didn't share bloodwork results with me until it was too late.) I don't know what could be done at 6 or 7 weeks along, unless there was an issue of needing cerclage done.

When I was pregnant with my son, I didn't even go in for an ultrasound until I was about 10 or 12 weeks along. I felt comfortable with that choice, but only you can decide. Talk to your doc about your options.

The pregnancy after my miscarriage I had the ultrasound at 5/6 weeks, but that was mostly because I was totally panicked, I just couldn't go through another 3+ weeks of not knowing. The idea of thinking that I could be having false hope and at any moment over the holidays I could start bleeding drove me nuts. Even though I knew that if the baby was fine at 6 weeks it could still change, it was a relief to know I had gotten that far. My numbers were also extremely high and they wanted to see if it was one or more babies.

Really, even if there was a miscarriage, there is nothing they can do about it, so waiting would not be a problem at all, and 10 weeks is the standard to do the test. The only reason to do the US now is if your mental status could not stand waiting.

I believe it simply depends on your doctor. I had an ultrasound at the beginning and pretty much each time with Kaiser, yet a friend of mine who has a PPO only gets them periodically. I have had a history of miscarriage as well and more important than the ultrasound would be the hormone levels and watching them rise. Have you discussed having your levels checked since an ultrasound may not be available?

Best of luck to you and your growing family

Fyi...I had an ultrasound between Christmas and New Years. I would wait until after the holdiays though if I were you.

I would wait if I were you. For my first pregnancy, I had a sonogram at 5 weeks. They couldn't see anything. I wasn't too hopeful. My bloodwork all came back fine though. I had another ultrasound at about 8 weeks, and we saw the heartbeat! Baby girl just turned 7 a few weeks ago!

For my fourth pregnancy (after having had two children), my bloodwork looked fine. But at my 9 week ultrasound, there was no heartbeat. I had to have a D&C done because I showed no signs of miscarrying on my own even a week later.

I would wait until after the holidays. I hope everything goes well.

Mine was scheduled when hcg crossed 3000. Somewhere ariund 5-6 wks.