Private Pregnancy Scans in London

It depends entirely on what you mean by private pregnancy care. Individual private pregnancy ultrasound scans in the UK generally cost between about £100 and £300 each, and NIPT screening with a scan usually costs several hundred pounds more. Full consultant-led private antenatal and maternity packages that include your booking appointment, consultant reviews and the birth itself are a different product entirely, and run into five figures at London private hospitals.

London Private Ultrasound sits in the first category. Our pregnancy scans start at £149 and NIPT Harmony with a scan is £549. You pay per scan, there is nothing to join, and you can book one scan or several.

At London Private Ultrasound a private pregnancy scan starts at £149. Early pregnancy, reassurance, dating, gender and presentation scans are £149; the growth scan is £199; ectopic and postpartum scans are £219; and NIPT Harmony with a viability scan is £549.

The price includes the appointment, the sonographer’s assessment, your images and a written report within 24 hours. There is no separate booking fee, referral fee or reporting fee.

For scans specifically, it is usually worth it in three situations: you want to see the baby earlier than the NHS scans, which start at 11 to 14 weeks, and you are anxious after a previous loss or a difficult early experience; you want a check between NHS appointments, particularly in the third trimester when growth is otherwise assessed by tape measure; or you want something the NHS does not routinely provide, such as a gender scan, NIPT screening or a presentation check before birth.

It is not worth paying privately to duplicate a scan you are already being offered on a similar timescale. Private scans complement NHS care rather than replacing it, and your NHS midwife or GP can act on our report.

No. Every pregnancy scan on this page can be booked directly, with no GP referral, no midwife referral and no NHS notes required. If you are already under NHS or private consultant care you are welcome to bring your notes so the sonographer can read the scan in context, but it is not a condition of booking.

Three things, in this order. First, contact your GP or self-refer to your local NHS maternity service to book your antenatal care — most London trusts accept online self-referral, and you should aim to do it before 10 weeks so your first NHS scan is arranged on time. Second, start 400 micrograms of folic acid daily until 12 weeks, along with vitamin D, and stop smoking and alcohol. Third, if you want to see the baby before the NHS 11 to 14 week scan, book a private early pregnancy scan from 6 weeks.

That third step is where most of our patients start, particularly after a previous miscarriage or IVF. If you have pain or bleeding at any point, seek same-day medical assessment rather than waiting for a booked appointment.

At 28 weeks, book the growth and wellbeing scan (£199). It measures the baby’s head, abdomen and femur to estimate weight and plot it on a growth chart, checks amniotic fluid volume, and assesses blood flow in the umbilical artery.

This is the most commonly booked scan in the third trimester, because after the 18 to 21 week anomaly scan most low-risk NHS pregnancies are monitored by measuring the bump with a tape measure rather than by ultrasound. Growth scans are usually spaced at least two to three weeks apart so there is enough interval to show a trend.

At 38 weeks the usual choice is the presentation scan (£149), which confirms whether the baby is head down, breech or transverse, and checks placental position and amniotic fluid. Parents book it before a planned vaginal birth, before deciding about an ECV to turn a breech baby, or simply because the position has been uncertain at midwife appointments.

If the concern is size rather than position, book the growth and wellbeing scan (£199) instead, which covers presentation as well.

We scan from 6 weeks. Before 6 weeks an ultrasound often cannot show a heartbeat even in a completely healthy pregnancy, which tends to cause worry rather than settle it, so we would rather you waited a few days than paid for a scan that cannot answer the question.

From 6 weeks a transvaginal scan can usually confirm the pregnancy is in the womb and detect a heartbeat. From then on there is a scan for every stage through to 40 weeks, and a postpartum scan after birth.

The scan itself is the same technology and the same clinical standards. What differs is access and timing. A low-risk NHS pregnancy is offered two routine scans, at 11 to 14 weeks and at 18 to 21 weeks, with additional scans if there is a clinical reason.

Privately you can book at any stage from 6 weeks, usually same day or next day, seven days a week, with as many guests as you like, and you get your report within 24 hours rather than through your maternity notes. The NHS route is free and remains the backbone of your care. Private scans sit alongside it, and we write our reports so an NHS midwife, GP or obstetrician can act on them.

That is a different decision from private scans, and we are not the provider for it: London Private Ultrasound offers pregnancy ultrasound and does not provide antenatal packages, consultant-led maternity care or birth.

People who choose private childbirth generally do so for continuity with one named consultant, a private room, and a guaranteed elective caesarean date where clinically appropriate. It costs five figures at London private hospitals, and NHS maternity units handle the majority of complex obstetric care in the city. Many of our patients take the middle route: NHS maternity care for the pregnancy and the birth, with private scans booked when they want to see the baby or want reassurance between appointments.

There is no single best one, and we would not be the right people to rank them: we are a private ultrasound clinic, not a maternity unit. London has several well-known private maternity units, most attached to large private hospitals or run as private wings of NHS teaching hospitals.

If you are choosing between them, the questions that matter are which consultant obstetricians hold practising privileges there, whether the unit has a neonatal intensive care unit on site, how emergencies are escalated, what is included in the quoted package, and what happens to the price if your birth does not go to plan. If all you actually want is scans, you do not need a maternity unit for that, and you can book those with us from £149.

On the NHS it is free, including antenatal care, the birth and postnatal care, and that is how the large majority of births in London happen.

Privately, a maternity package at a London private hospital is a five-figure cost once the consultant’s antenatal and delivery fees, the hospital stay and any anaesthetic or theatre charges are combined, with caesarean birth costing more than a straightforward vaginal birth and the final bill depending on how long you stay. Prices vary widely by hospital, so ask each one for a written breakdown of what is and is not included. We do not provide birth services. A full run of private scans through an entire pregnancy with us is a small fraction of that figure.

The 5-1-1 rule, sometimes written as 5-5-1, is a rule of thumb for when labour is established enough to head to hospital: contractions coming every 5 minutes, each lasting about 1 minute, sustained for 1 hour. It is an American guideline and it is not the wording UK maternity units use, which more often ask you to call when contractions are regular, painful and coming about three times in every ten minutes.

Follow the instructions your own maternity unit has given you rather than a rule from the internet, and call them straight away, at any stage, if your waters break, you bleed, or your baby’s movements change. This is a labour question rather than a scan question, and we are not a maternity provider. What we can do late in pregnancy is a presentation scan to confirm which way up your baby is.

The Sure Start Maternity Grant is a one-off £500 payment in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for people who receive certain benefits, such as Universal Credit or Income Support. It is normally only paid if this is your first child, or if you are expecting a multiple birth and already have children, and you have to claim between 11 weeks before your due date and 6 months after the birth. Scotland has its own scheme, the Pregnancy and Baby Payment, instead.

Eligibility rules change, so check GOV.UK for the current position. The grant is intended for the costs of a new baby and is not linked to private scans, which are not funded by the NHS or by any grant scheme.

Usually not. Most UK private medical insurance policies, including standard Bupa, AXA, Vitality and Aviva plans, exclude routine pregnancy, childbirth and elective pregnancy scans, because pregnancy is not treated as a curable medical condition.

Some policies will cover specific complications of pregnancy once a waiting period has passed, and some corporate schemes are broader than personal ones, so check your own policy wording or call your insurer before you assume either way. Our pregnancy scans are self-pay, with the price shown up front on each scan card, and we can provide an itemised invoice if you want to submit a claim.

We provide the ultrasound, not the obstetric management. If you are on a high-risk pathway for gestational diabetes, raised blood pressure, a previous small baby, a clotting disorder or a previous loss, you can book growth and wellbeing scans with us between your hospital appointments, and we will send you a written report you can hand straight to your obstetric team.

What we do not do is take over that care, and we would not want you to swap consultant-led monitoring for private scans. If a scan finds something that needs obstetric input, we explain it in the room and set out the route to your maternity unit or a private obstetrician the same day. Anything acute — bleeding, severe pain, reduced fetal movements or suspected waters breaking — needs your maternity assessment unit today, not a booked scan.

Yes. Twin and multiple pregnancies take longer to scan and need more measurements, so please call 020 7101 3377 before booking online and we will confirm the appointment length and the price for your stage of pregnancy.

Multiple pregnancies are also monitored more intensively on the NHS than singleton pregnancies, with more frequent scans built into the pathway, so it is worth checking what you are already being offered before you book privately.

Ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves rather than ionising radiation, and has been used in pregnancy for decades with no evidence of harm to mother or baby when performed by trained professionals for a clinical purpose.

Our scans are performed by HCPC-registered sonographers working to British Medical Ultrasound Society safety guidance, which includes keeping exposure to the minimum needed to obtain the required images. Every scan we perform includes a clinical wellbeing assessment, which is also why we do not offer souvenir-only scanning with no clinical component.

Yes, and we encourage it. Partners, family, friends and older children are welcome in the scan room, without the guest limits you may have met at an NHS appointment. The rooms are a sensible size, so let us know when you book if you are bringing a larger group. A chaperone is always available, and you can request a female sonographer when booking.

Your sonographer talks you through the findings in the room, during the scan, so you leave knowing the result. Printed images are given to you on the day and digital images are included.

Your written report is issued within 24 hours and is formatted so you can pass it to your NHS midwife, GP or private obstetrician. If something is found that needs prompt attention, we tell you at the time and set out the next step rather than leaving it to the report.

The sonographer explains what has been seen, in plain language, in the room. You are not sent away to wait for a letter.

Depending on the finding we will advise on urgency, issue a report the same day where needed, and set out the onward route — your NHS maternity unit, your GP, an early pregnancy assessment unit, or a private obstetrician or fetal medicine specialist. We do not manage complications ourselves, and we will always tell you plainly when something needs a service other than ours.

Our Central London clinic is at 27 Welbeck Street, W1G 8EN, in the Harley Street Medical District and within walking distance of Bond Street and Oxford Circus stations.

Our second clinic is at 54–56 Victoria Street, St Albans AL1 3HZ, a short walk from St Albans City station, which is often more convenient for patients across Hertfordshire and outer north London. Both clinics offer pregnancy scan appointments seven days a week.

Before about 12 weeks, drink roughly a pint of water an hour beforehand and do not empty your bladder, because a full bladder lifts the womb into view for an abdominal scan. If the view is not clear enough, or you are very early, the sonographer may suggest a transvaginal scan instead — that needs an empty bladder, and it is your decision to accept or decline. After about 12 weeks no bladder preparation is needed.

Wear two pieces rather than a dress so your abdomen can be exposed easily, arrive 10 minutes early, and bring your NHS notes and any previous scan reports if you have them.