Viability Scan

What is a Viability Scan?

Congratulations, you’re expecting! The Viability Scan is the first scan in your pregnancy journey. It is
sometimes referred to as the “dating scan”, however our Viability Scan provides much more information
about the fetus than just the date of the pregnancy.

At 8 weeks, the fetus is just as big as a grape and has started to develop the majority of its organs. The
main purpose of this scan is to confirm the heartbeat as well as:

- Check for single/multiple pregnancies
- Date the pregnancy: estimation of gestational age (pregnancy age in weeks) and the EDD
(estimated date of delivery)
- Check main structures of the gestational sac, which include the baby (the embryo),
the yolk sac, and the future placenta,
- Examine for any early pregnancy abnormalities.

*For multiple pregnancies (i.e. twins, triplets, etc.) it is extremely important to know the type of
placentation (do the babies share the same placenta or do they have separate placentas?). This is
important for the prediction of certain complications.

The Ealry Viability Scan will:

- Let you know how many babies you will have
- Be able to tell the precise date of the pregnancy and estimated delivery
- Allow you to take a NIPT as early as possible (if we recognise that the baby is at least 10 weeks)
Allow you to create a detailed schedule of your follow-up scans, which means you can schedule in your
other activities (such as business trips or holidays) around this.

What is the optimal time to perform Viability Scan?

The optimal gestational age for the scan is from 7-9 weeks.

Early Viability Scan:

We are sometimes able to offer an early Viability Scan from around 6 weeks for patients who are showing
symptoms consistent with Ectopic Pregnancy. These symptoms include light bleeding, brown discharge
from the vagina, pain on the tip of your shoulder and 1 sided tummy pain.