Third Trimester Scans: What 13,000 Pregnancies Actually Showed

The UK Government has responded to a petition asking the NHS to offer every pregnant woman a routine third trimester ultrasound scan. The headlines said ministers were "prepared to consider it." The actual response says something rather different — and underneath it there's an evidence story that almost nobody is reporting. In this video I go through the petition, the full Government response, and the three studies that matter: the POP study, the IRIS trial, and the breech research that I think reframes the entire debate. We cover why "no known risks" is a misleading thing to say about a screening programme, why finding more small babies didn't translate into fewer harmed babies, and why the strongest case for a 36-week scan might have nothing to do with growth at all. 📚 SOURCES Petition: Require NHS to offer routine third trimester pregnancy ultrasound scan (UK Parliament) — https://petition.parliament.uk/petiti... Henrichs J et al. (2019). Effectiveness of routine third trimester ultrasonography to reduce adverse perinatal outcomes in low risk pregnancy (the IRIS study). BMJ, 367:l5517. doi:10.1136/bmj.l5517 Sovio U et al. (2015). Screening for fetal growth restriction with universal third trimester ultrasonography in nulliparous women in the Pregnancy Outcome Prediction (POP) study. The Lancet, 386(10008):2089–2097. Wastlund D et al. (2019). Screening for breech presentation using universal late-pregnancy ultrasonography: a prospective cohort study and cost effectiveness analysis. PLoS Medicine, 16(4):e1002778. Knights S, Prasad S, Kalafat E, et al. (2023). Impact of point-of-care ultrasound and routine third trimester ultrasound on undiagnosed breech presentation and perinatal outcomes. PLoS Medicine, 20(4):e1004192. Henrichs J et al. (2022). Cost-effectiveness of routine third trimester ultrasound screening for fetal growth restriction. IJERPH, 19(6):3312. NICE NG201: Antenatal care — https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng201 UK National Screening Committee open call (closes 30 September 2026) — https://www.gov.uk/government/publica... MBRRACE-UK Perinatal Mortality Surveillance, births in 2024 Independent National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation, final report (Baroness Amos, 30 June 2026) — https://www.matneoinv.org.uk/final-re... ⚠️ This video is a summary of published research and public policy documents. It is not medical advice and cannot account for your individual circumstances. Please discuss any concerns about your pregnancy with your midwife or doctor. #pregnancy #NHS #evidencebasedparenting