As Claire has signed up for as many free baby things as humanly-possible, it seems that we've had lots more baby-related post arrive. Amongst it all, was a leaflet from a company called Baby-Bond offering a 4D scan on unborn babies.
We had read the flyer and looked at the website and it all looked really interesting. (Having said that, at the time of seeing the website, I looked back at Claire and she was balling her eyes out!)
What's a 4D Scan?
Basically, a 4D scan is like a 3D image but in 'real-time'. This means that you can watch your baby moving around inside the belly, picking his nose, etc as if he's just a few feet away from you, sitting upright on the chair or something. This is nothing like the black and white cross-section scans done when you go for a scan on the NHS. I mention that, as this is not a service that the NHS provide, as apparently, the 4D scans can not provide any data or information with regards to measurements on the baby.
There are different packages, but the marketing is done such that you can't help but want the top-whack package. Bit like Sky TV really.
For our top-whack package, we had the 20-30 minutes of video footage recorded on a DVD, as well as some smaller and shorter video clips and photos on CD, print-outs large and small, etc.
The next package down has just the DVD video with no stills; the next package down again has the CD based stuff but no DVD, etc, so you can see what I mean about the wanting to have the best option, especially as you can ever go back and do it again. So, we were suckered in? Mostly certainly.
As the scan can be done in lots of place across the country, it's basically a case of picking the doctor's surgery near you. So, Claire booked the scan for a bit later in the pregnancy (for more interesting viewing more than anything) and picked a date so the baby was about 27 weeks old and chose a surgery in Peterborough, as it was easier for me to get to as I work there. I even managed it within a lunch-hour!
The scan was very much like having a normal ultra-sound scan, but the only difference being that the TV/monitor at the foot of the bed also had a DVD-recorder and desk-jet printer linked to it.
The scanner tool was held against Claire's belly and the usual black and white cross-section image appeared as we've seen several times before at this point, but at the click of a button, the image instantly changed to a 4D scan of young Rigby, with an orange haze to it. (There must be a technical reason for this, as I'm guessing it's dark inside there!)
As 'little Rigby' was about 27 weeks at this point, he was too big to get all of him in a picture at once, so the footage was mainly of his upper torso, head and arms. But, true to form, there, on the screen, was our unborn child waving his hands around and playing with the umbilical cord like it's a toy or something. Claire did have to get up and jump around a little bit to start with, as the cord was looped in front of his face and in our line of view, so to speak. The lady then carried on scanning, changing positions every few minutes to get a different angle, zoom depth, etc. All of this was being recorded to DVD as we were going along, and during this time, she was also pressing a button to get snapshot still images too, which she printed out later for us.
To be honest, the clarity of the video was amazing considering that this is a non-invasive scan and these video images are coming from sound waves going through Claire's stomach muscles, skin, etc., but it really weird, as it was just like watching a baby in front of us, watching as he moved his head, lips, hands and fingers. He even found the ol' Rigby charm by sticking a fore-finger up his nose, just when the lady clicked the button to take a photo! (Guess which one I chose to have blown up to A4 size...?)
The recording went on for quite a while, which was good as it really felt like you was getting your money's worth, but soon our time was up and the lady proceeded to finalise the video on the DVD whilst printing images and burning the other files (short video clip and photos) to the CD in the laptop. The photos are good, but they don't really portray the same as what we saw on the screen.
All in all, the session was good and we enjoyed it. We'll be able to look back in years and years to come and see what was waiting for us. It maybe doesn't have the same appeal to others, but to us, it was good and special and all that.
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