Nina Sebastiane: If like me, you're an expecting mom or even a dad to be, then at the 20 week scan, you may will be interested to find out the sex of your baby. But depending on which area you live in, the hospital might not be willing to tell you. So
Dr. Ian Pollok, what do you think? I mean, should we be able to find out at that stage or not?
Dr. Ian Pollok: It's a good question. Some hospitals do and some hospitals don't tell people. One of the issues is, the time spent doing it. The ultra sonographer, the person who does the test, sometimes finds it's a boy or a girl without really looking hard and to know. But sometimes they might have to spend a little time doing it. So one question is, should we pay and spend time with our staff, looking for something, because after all, if it's a boy or girl isn't really a health issue.
Nina Sebastiane: No.
Dr. Ian Pollok: It's a nice thing to know. But it's not a serious problem. We are looking for problems and scanning to do with, does the child have a heart problem and normal kidney, a normal brain.
Nina Sebastiane: It's interesting you see because the hospital I am in for this pregnancy is different to my first child because I moved, and they wouldn't tell me and it was really frustrating because you could clearly see that the sonographer knew exactly what it was and she wasn't prepared to tell me and it was very frustrating. Especially for me in a practical sense, because lots of parents if they are having their second child, even the simple things like, I have got a bag of pink clothes at home in the loft. Can I send them to charity now can I -- do I have to hold them a bit longer.
Dr. Ian Pollok: You have to remember that it's not an exact science and it will be not be a 100% right. Even a good ultrasound sonographer sometimes won't easily be able to see, it's a bit difficult scan, so it won't always be right. So sometimes the hospitals are a little bit concerned that they might get it wrong. So that's one concern. In some parts of the world, probably in some countries, having a girl or boy is quite important because some families don't want to have girls and they choose not to continue pregnancy just because it's a girl. That's obviously a worrying thing, but probably what you not see in this country.
Nina Sebastiane: If that's not such an issue in this country, perhaps the time element that's spent by a sonographer doing this work. It could be paid for an extra sort of the chitty amount at the end of the scan, you won't find out, cost to your father.
Dr. Ian Pollok: I think that's interesting discussion, I think most departments would like to raise more money, but obviously it shouldn't be important to have to get money from patients during the initial consultation, it's after all, it's free appointed service. I think maybe if people would explain that, we may better tell you whether that's a boy or a girl but we won't always be right, that would be one approach. But I think it's wrong to expect someone -- I think the problem is looking and spending time looking when that person could be dealing with the next patient, dealing with the next mother.
Nina Sebastiane: Alright. Okay. Well, thanks for that.
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