- It is now common practice to have an initial ultrasound around the time of your first OB appointment (usually 8 weeks). It has been found that there are several benefits to early scans; such as determining gestational age. Your first ultrasound is always exciting, for many women seeing their baby and hearing the heartbeat makes the pregnancy seem "real".
Between 18 and 20 weeks your doctor/midwife will schedule you for a "routine ultrasound". This scan is done mainly to look for congenital malformations, adequate fetal growth, and placental position. Gender can often be determined during this scan for those who are eager to know if they should start buying pink or blue! However, sometimes babies don't like to "play nice" and may not be in the right position to see the genitals. For those of you who are eager to learn the sex of your baby this can be very disappointing! You may be able to talk your practitioner into a "quick scan" on another day, some offices even offer scans just for the purpose of determining the sex of your baby; they generally charge $50-75.00 for this service.
