I went to the Docklands clinic on the 7th of June 2012 to have an early dating scan for my baby. I was worried that because of my age there could be problems so I didn't want to wait until the NHS 12 week scan.

I must say that the service was hard to fault. When I arrived I was greeted warmly by the receptionist (who was the lady I had been talking to on the phone). I had called her to let her know I would have been late, as i live in Bishop's Stortford, Herts, and I was getting there after work, and so was my husband. I had been waiting for my husband, but since there was no sign of him until late, I decided to go on my own and wait for him there. Luckily I got a taxi when I got to the tube station, because my husband tried to follow the directions given by Google maps but took ages to find the place! Nobody knew where it was! Luckily the taxi driver did ;) a very well spent 5-er!

Anyway, when I got there, I had been holding "it" for three hours to try and have the best quality pictures. Hence, I was absolutely DYING for the loo. the lady said she would try to put me forward next, and if I really needed to go to let her know so she could make me go, and then give me more water and make me wait a while. She gave me some paperwork to fill up and told me to sit down. As I was doing that, my husband arrived (luckily!) completely exhausted. After a while, it was our turn.

We were allowed in a room of good size with a little medical bed, some machines and a big screen. My husband sat next to me and I lied down on the medical bed. The sonographer was also very nice. She put us at ease telling us that her husband was born in Harlow and that his family was from Stortford and that he considered himself an "Essex man" because of that... which made us smile. She then put some gel on my tummy and put the machine on... and there IT WAS!!!! She found the baby straight away and all I could say was "OH MY GOD IT'S REALLY THERE!!!!" She showed us the little heart beating and calculated the heart beat as 171 bpm, which she said was a bit fast but OK, very strong. She tried to show us a sneaky peek of the 4d scan but Baby didn't cooperate. She measured Baby and said that it was 8 weeks and 4 days following her calculations, only 2 days smaller than my LMP dating. Hence, she told me to keep the LMP dating as the baby could just be slightly slower at developing. She made us listen to the heartbeat a couple of times and then she told me I could go to the toilet!!!!

After I emptied my bladder, I went back upstairs with my husband and the sonographer arrived with a picture for us to take home, and a report for my midwife, giving details of the size of the baby, heartbeat, single pregnancy and the fact it was intra-uterus, which was all what I wanted to check.

It was a wonderful experience to see our baby for the first time, and reassuring to know Baby was OK, especially to hear such strong heartbeat. Everyone was very polite and the structure looked professional, tidy and clean. I definitely recommend the service, but do take a taxi when you get out of the Docklands stop, it is a bit hard to find!

My only complaint: when I booked it, the lady on the phone told me she would send me a confirmation email but I didn't receive it. I rang again a few days after asking for it again, was told she would send it but again, nothing. In the end I requested it through the website and they sent it to me. I guess it was the spelling of my name that they got wrong, or maybe it's true what the lady said that they have problems with sending emails to gmail addresses. However, this doesn't change my opinion of the place :)