For all expectant Dads and Mums, you know that a trip to hospital for a standard baby scan will offer you a magical moment to get up close and personal to your little one. When you see this 2D (or 3D?!) scan for the first time and see your little one moving, kicking and just generally doing okay, it’s a fantastic experience that shows you what is happening even before you get to enjoy those kicks and punches for the first time.

A more recent invention is 4D baby scans, which allow you to pay privately to see your little baby in a bit more detail. It is worth noting at this point for anyone as neurotic as me that these scans are not a necessity and you don’t have to go and get one. A 4D scan will cost you some of your hard earned cash and will no doubt add to the list of costs you can find mounting up as you get everything ready for your baby. For this reason, whilst we decided to go for one, I felt it was wise to reflect and write about whether the scan was worthwhile, to help other prospective parents decide whether to go for it.

I will say now that whilst we have lots of cute pictures from the scan, we are choosing not to put them up online (sorry!) and also just to point out, when we went for our 4D scan, our little one was 26 weeks, which is a little earlier than some people choose when going for a 4D scan (although you can have them from earlier).

Having sat down in the room with the doctor, we had a quick discussion about the baby. They will make sure you know the sex of the baby or, if you want to keep it a surprise, they won’t mention it during the scan. I personally was a little shocked that the device used to scan was so similar to the normal scanning equipment as I had visions of some grand machine being used! Charlotte has advised that the scan felt the same as normal scans and wasn’t a different experience to usual in relation to how it affects the mum to be.

Initially the scan itself was a little blurry but when everything settled down we were presented with our little one in all her glory! It was amazing to sit there and actually see her little face, features, expressions and mannerisms come to life there in front of us. Initially we were both so amazed it was a case of just having huge grins on our faces as we sat and watched what was happening and started to process it all in our own heads. Quickly this turned into discussions as to what features of us we could see in the little lady and discussing how wonderful it was to see her (and of course being our own little one we of course talked about how beautiful and lovely she looked despite her having a slightly grumpy look as we intruded on her having a nap!).

While our scan was a little earlier than many 4D scans and our little lady wasn’t that active since she was asleep (we saw one heavily pregnant lady walking up and down the four flights of stairs to try to get her little one to wake up for their scan!) it was a truly wonderful occasion and so worth the cost. In fact, we think that we will be back a little later to see how she is doing and hopefully to catch her at a time when she is up and moving!

Finally, while our families were not there to witness everything, we did get given a DVD of the footage that we watched live as well as pictures to take away. All in all, I would definitely recommend going for a 4D scan and would suggest to anyone worried about the costs to keep an eye on sites like Groupon to see if you can pick up a bargain. If you can’t find a discount or voucher code, I would still suggest biting the bullet and going for it if you can for a wonderful early introduction to your little one.