My appointment for the first scan was on a Friday afternoon at 4pm in the local health centre. The thing I was most nervous about was whether I was pregnant with twins or not as I knew that we were going to find out.

When we arrived the healthcentre was deserted, there were only a couple of cleaners there. Both my partner and myself thought it was a strange time for the appointment as normally all appointments are between 9am to 2pm. We went to the place where I was supposed to have the scan and there were about 5 couples sitting in a line in silence, all the women were at various stages of pregnancy. We took our place alongside the couples. The nurse came out of the room and took my form (called a volante in Spanish) then she disppeared again. Just 5 minutes later I was called in for the scan before all the others who had been waiting when we arrived.

I had to lie on a bed in a dimly lit room and the scanner was placed on my uterus. It felt very uncomfortable, which surprised me as I hadn’t expected any discomfort.

My partner sat next to me, both he and the scan operater had a good view of the screen meanwhile I couldn’t see a thing! Immediately the foetus could be seen on the screen – as I was informed by my partner, who told me it was kicking and moving its arms about. The first thing the scan operater told me was that it was singular – I felt very relieved. He moved the screen a little so I could see it, but I still had to twist my neck in order to get a glimpse.

The scan lasted about 15 minutes because it was difficult for the scan operater to get a good view of the nuchal pad. Eventually he got the view he’d been looking for and told me it was normal.

At the end of the scan I was given a hand written report and a print out of 10 photos from the scan to take to the next appointment with the obstretrician.