Tips for your appointment

We would like to extend a very warm welcome to you here at Het Haagse Hof for your medical or private ultrasound scans. The ultrasounds take place by appointment at one of our lovely locations in The Hague. Please do read the detailed information available regarding the medical ultrasounds and non-medical ultrasounds.

We would like to provide you with a few tips in preparation for your appointment. Do you have any questions? Then please feel free to contact us.

General tips for your appointment

• Are you visiting our location in the HagaZiekenhuis? Then please do not register your arrival at the hospital’s information kiosks, but walk straight through to the ultrasound centre (route J3.1).
• Please be on time for your appointment and hand over any possible registration forms (referrals) at the desk.
• Are you late for your appointment due to unforeseen circumstances? Then your sonographer will check whether your ultrasound can still go ahead and otherwise make a new appointment for you.
• Do you have a belly button piercing? This can damage the equipment, so please make sure this is removed at home before your appointment.
• Do you have a latex allergy? Please notify the sonographer before the ultrasound is started.
• Please turn your phone to silent and do not record or take photographs during the ultrasound. This is because this is a medical examination.
• You will be given one or several photographs of your unborn child after the ultrasound. We would like to advice you that laminating these images will irreversibly damage the photograph.
• We regularly supervise students who are following an ultrasound training course in our ultrasound centre. They will sit in on the examination, or may even conduct the examination under the guidance of the sonographer. Do you object to this? Then please do tell the receptionist or sonographer. 

A medical ultrasound: tips

• Please hand in the registration form you were given by the referrer at the desk.
• A full bladder is recommended for all ultrasounds conducted between the 10th and 15th weeks of pregnancy. Try to empty your bladder approximately 1 hour before your appointment and then drink two or three glasses of water. This will allow your sonographer to get a better image of your baby.
• An ultrasound in early pregnancy (up to 10 weeks) is generally always taken internal (vaginal), unless the sonographer decides otherwise. The sonographer will decide if an internal or external ultrasound is needed to obtain the best possible results and will discuss this with you before the examination.
• No children are permitted in the ultrasound room during the screening ultrasounds. This is for a number of reasons. The ultrasound room is dark, which children can find quite scary, or they may start to get bored. This means you and your partner will no longer be able to relax whilst looking at the images and listening to the explanations. It will also affect the quality of the examination, as the sonographer won’t be able to optimally concentrate. Further we would like you to be aware of the possibility that there is a small chance of finding an abnormality during your scan. We will discuss this consequently with you during the examination and this can inevitably result in questions and emotions. Our experience has shown that children find it difficult to handle these situations.
• You can bring a maximum of 1 adults to your medical ultrasound.
• You will be given one or several photographs of your baby after the medical ultrasound. A video or DVD recording is not possible with these ultrasound scans.

A non-medical, private scan: tips

• Think carefully as to whether you want to bring children along to the private ultrasound. We don’t have any facilities for looking after children during the ultrasound.
• A full bladder is recommended for all ultrasounds conducted between the 10th and 15th weeks of pregnancy. Try to empty your bladder approximately 1 hour before your appointment and then drink two or three glasses of water. This will allow your sonographer to get a better image of your baby.
• Please be aware that a non-medical ultrasound scans don’t always come to the desired result. The possibility exists that your baby is not in a favourable position. If this is the case we will do our best to arrange a new appointment with you. In case of a 3D/4D ultrasound scan, we will arrange a new appointment for you against the small fee of €15.00.

Quality of the appointment and complaints

• We would like to know what you think of Het Haagse Hof, as we want to keep our quality levels as high as possible. That’s why we will ask for your email address and we will send you a survey after your visit to our ultrasound centre. It goes without saying completing this survey is done on a completely voluntary basis.
• Are you not satisfied with something in particular? Then we obviously want to hear about that too. You can read more about our service and complaints procedure.

Find us in the HagaZiekenhuis (route J 3.1)