"Harris Birthright Centre"

We had our anomoly scan at Harris Birthright Centre at 21 weeks.

During the scan I asked simple questions a couple of times (e.g. 'What angle are we looking at this from?') and was replied to with 'I don't understand your question' more than once, so I eventually stopped asking questions. The 2 sonographers spoke only to each other and did not explain to us what was being viewed on the ultrasound. Despite this, I still felt positively about my experience until the end of the scan.

At the end I was asked to stand up and wipe myself down. While standing and holding my coat, we were told the baby had a talipes diagnosis in a very blunt and off-the-cuff manner with very little explanation but mentioning surgery, casting, stints etc. While I now understand this can be rectified with treatment after birth, we were not expecting to receive the news in this way and I fainted from standing position due to the surprise (and I have never fainted before).

A more senior member of staff was brought into the room and I was scanned again and told to 'look away from the area' while the diagnosis was double checked. Once this second member of staff confirmed the diagnosis and gave us a little more explanation, we were left with nothing more than the notes from our scan.

These notes imply that we received an extensive explanation of the diagnosis and care, as well as being directed to helpful websites for the diagnosis - this do not happen to us and no one mentioned any websites or gave us any detailed explanation.

There are amazing facilities but due to the focus on research rather than care at this centre, I believe we were treated very poorly, like a statistic and not like a first time mother who may be concerned or need reassurance about her baby's diagnosis.

I was so upset that we decided to have a private anatomy scan 3 days later which provided much clearer explanations and care throughout.

We have been told we should be referred to a fetal medical consultant following the diagnosis which I am now hoping to arrange through our midwife.