Require NHS to offer routine third trimester pregnancy ultrasound scan

As a mother of a baby born via emergency c-section due to missed foetal compromise I urge the Government to require the NHS to offer a routine third trimester ultrasound scan. I think this could reduce emergency c-sections, stillbirths and lifelong disabilities due to missed foetal complications.

Currently the NHS offers two routine scans, one at 12 weeks and one at 20 weeks. After this the baby's health is relied upon fundal height, parent blood pressure, dipstick urine tests, and a minutes-worth of doppler use every 2-4 weeks. I believe that not only are these methods outdated, but can also miss growth restrictions, reduced foetal heart rate and placental issues. I therefore call for the NHS to offer routine third trimester scans, which could detect issues earlier, medical intervention can be involved sooner and emergency c-sections reduced.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) antenatal care guidance recommends offering two routine ultrasound scans: one in the first trimester, and one at around 20 weeks. For pregnancies classified as low-risk, NICE advises that additional routine scans after 28 weeks do not provide significant benefits and should not be offered as standard practice. Instead, NICE recommends targeted scanning based on clinical need.

Antenatal and newborn screening programmes are offered to women during pregnancy and to the baby after birth. The NHS offers screening for over 30 conditions during this time, including a 20-weeks scan for women, which screens for 11 physical conditions identifiable at this stage in development. Screening and treatment of babies prevents deaths and disabilities and improves quality of life in more than 1,000 children per year.

Mandating a routine ultrasound for all women in the third trimester when there are no specific clinical symptoms would be considered a screening programme. The Government is advised on all screening matters by the independent UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), which consists of leading medical and screening experts.

Screening can cause harm, so the UK NSC will only recommend screening if it is confident that there is robust evidence that offering screening will do more good than harm. We have not asked the UK NSC to look at providing a routine third ultrasound scan in the third trimester of pregnancy to identify medical issues. Recent studies, such as the IRIS study, have explored routine third trimester ultrasound combined with biomarkers which suggest improved detection of small babies but there remains insufficient evidence that universal screening alone reduces stillbirth. However, the UK NSC welcomes any new evidence which suggests the case for a new or modified screening programme via its open call, which opened on 1 July and closes on 30 September 2026.