How many ultrasounds do you get when you're pregnant?

I thought you only got one free one. The rest of them, you have to pay for. This is what I have heard. I could be mistaken.

It depends on your medical and family history and how your pregnancy progresses. Normally, it’s 1 or 2 depending on the situation. If there is any history of birth defects (like cleft lip or palate) in your family or the dad’s family, that could get a 3rd one (it would be a more in depth scan to look for the defects). If they are for medical reasons, insurance should cover them, but it’s not a guarantee.

When I was pregnant with my son, I had 4. I had one at the beginning of my pregnancy, then the one to find out the sex, then one to check for a cleft lip/palate (because my son’s grandfather was born with it), and then a biophysical profile towards the end of my pregnancy because I didn’t feel him moving around like he should have been. They were all covered by my insurance.

Typically only one, unless the doctor has a reason to do another. I ended up having two ultrasounds each pregnancy, for various reasons, and didn’t have any trouble getting my insurance to pay for them. Normally, you have an ultrasound around 16 weeks to check the size of the baby, look for any potential problems, and learn the sex of the baby if you choose. If everything goes very smoothly, that’s the only ultrasound the doctor will do.

My “extra” ultrasounds were for light bleeding, to check the position of the placenta, and to check the size again of one of my boys, who was rather large. In each case, the doctor suggested the ultrasounds and it wasn’t something I asked for.

I believe there are private ultrasound companies that you can pay for an additional ultrasound. It’s more like taking your baby to get his or her pictures taken—there’s no medical advantage, but they give you a video.

In the Uk you get two or more should there be any problems with your pregnancy.

One at 12 weeks and one at 20 weeks is the standard.