She was an actress. Not a doctor

Maybe the doctor wasn't properly qualified in pre-natal/a midwife so wasn't allowed to say or do paperwork? She could've just been the doctor assigned to Stacey so was helping her by doing a scan

Well the law needs to be changed by an act of parliament then.

Wow, the nhs really is getting desperate

I can see the logic in what you are saying but do you mean that they would abort illegally as although it is pretty much a formality early in pregnancy, 2 Doctors do need to sign off and i think they look much more closely at the given reasons the later on it gets. Generally speaking, terminations (legal terminations) carried out 20-24 weeks are due to a major problems having been detected at the 20 week scan, which is actually called the abnormality scan for that very reason.

Different trusts or even hospitals must have different policies on this but all I can say is that everybody I know that has had a baby in the past 10 years has been asked if they want to know at their 20 week scan and most have said yes - and nearly all these women live in and around London.

Yes, that occurred to me. It didn't seem that she was on Obs and. Gynae or Maternity, she was in a normal, adult ward for observation on Stacey rather tham the baby because of her concussion. So, although of course she'd be competent to find the heartbeat with an ultrasound, she wasn't a specialist so didn't want to get into details. Even though she probably could tell, it might just have been professional courtesy not to give out information which was another department's area.

You do have to give a reason yes. It might seem like a moral judgement but you're supposed to show that it would have a detrimental affect on you if you were to proceed. But, the 'evidence' for this can be very thin. A friend of mine (I went into the consultation with her) just said she and the father had not been together very long, they weren't emotionally or financially ready to give a child the best life and that was enough. As i say, it really is a formality in the early stages.

This is the only thing I can think of, but surely if she had been qualified to perform a scan then she could be qualified enough to give out the gender? I dont know much about midwifery though.

Regardless of rules to do with aborting a baby, Stacey is past the legal abortion limit anyway.

I'm Irish and it may be different in the UK but on my first child I was a private patient in a public hospital and they didn't tell me the sex. I went to a private hospital for my other two as the birth and aftermath were horrendous on my first and both times they told me the sex at my 20 week scan.

I had guessed right on all 3 anyway!!

The soap is set in the East End and, as has been previously said, many hospitals in this area have a policy of not revealing gender of baby, because of selective termination,if it is unwanted gender (female usually).

But Stacey has already been for her 20 week scan and is beyond the legal abortion limit of 24 weeks so couldnt have one even if she wanted to.

Have you never heard of back street or illegal abortions? Just because they are past the limit of legal abortions, doesn't mean to say they can't get one.

The people i know that we're asked if they wanted to know at 20 weeks were all NHS

I imagine it is probably even more obvious privately with all these 3d photos and videos they do now. I mean, surely, depending on the position the baby is in, it will be fairly obvious?

Actually, that can be an issue. Even at 20 weeks, if the baby happens to by lying the wrong way, they just might not be able to tell and will hardly be able to wait however long it takes for the baby to shift position as they'll have another Patient waiting. But in that case, you'd imagine they'd say that is the reason, rather than them not being allowed to say.

I honestly think it might have been as simple as it not being an official appointment about the baby with Obs and Gynae in charge so she couldn't talk about it in that much detail.

And of course, for some reason, they do,'t want us the audience to know yet.

Many hospitals have adopted the policy of not telling women the gender of their baby - and it is nothing to do with the experience or qualification of the person performing the ultrasound.

Some hospitals have a policy whereby they don't offer to tell you the gender, but will see if they can if the parents ask. And some do still give parents the option.

However, I think there will be an increase in the number that will not say. It is primarily because of women wanting a termination based on the gender of their baby; and even if it is said at a later scan (i,e, after the 24 week deadline), if women were desperate enough there are ways and means of having a late term termination.

With that being said if women were desperate to know there is the option of having private scans specifically to find out the gender.

We know it's a boy, the sonographer didn't say outright, but she told Stacey to go with her instincts and made it obvious that it was a boy.

Whoever said that it's so that people can't sue when the sex turns out to be other than expected, that's nonsense and reminds me of a cousin of mine who became pregnant while on the pill, she was adamant that she'd be able to sue

My NHS trust won't tell you the sex due to some cultures aborting girls. Some people fly to their country of origin to terminate.

That does make sense, just because our abortion laws restrict to 24 weeks, many others have later limits.

I'm sure there will be ways round it though, just going private for one scan would still give anybody with a mind to abort on the grounds of gender the information they need. And they would be able to find out early enough to still get the termination legally in the UK.

So it seems like an insufficient measure to solve the problem to me unless they are going to have a blanket policy across all Trusts and also ban private clinics from doing scans and revealing the gender.

Also, what happens when the baby is born if they are so against having girls? Do they get abandoned or mistreated? I hate to say it, but if that is the case, a termination might actually have been better although I hate the gender politics of it.

It is not exact anyhow, my neighbours GD, was told her baby was a boy, but once it was delivered, she had a little girl.

I think this is the most likely reason for hospitals not being willing to say, however boy or girl it shouldn't really make a difference anyway, a healthy baby is what you are hoping for surely?

To get a private sexing scan you have to prove you have had the NHS 20 week scan and some places won't tell you the sex until after the abortion limit. You can pay the NHS here for the sexing scan but they won't do it until after 24 weeks. I had a 20 week 4d scan which showed the sex of my son but it was so I could start shopping and painting. It's getting harder here to get a sexing scan before the abortion cut off. My brother is in a different area and the NHS there will tell you the sex if they are sure but I was told the policy here is to refuse to say because there were a lot of patients "going on holiday" and coming back not pregnant anymore when told they were having girls. They aren't allowed to pick and choose who they tell so have a blanket ban.

A blanket ban makes absolute sense, it would be discriminatory in the extreme to do it any other way as they would be making assumptions about a couple intentions re the gender based on what - the color of their skin, ethnic dress, whether they seemed 'nice'.

However, if they are going to have a policy like this, it should be blanket across all of the NHS, not vary from Hospital to Hospital or even Trust to Trust. And clearly, it currently does vary from area to area - as you say it is different where your brother works and all my friends have been asked whether they wanted to know the gender at their NHS 20 weeks scan and the last one was only a few months ago and in Southgare which is a North London suburb so hardly out in the sticks with a low ethnic ratio.

Most people will want to know for shopping, decorating Nurseries or even so they can get any older siblings used to the idea and included by talking about their new little brother or sister.

As dreadful as it is, I would imagine that the number of people wanting to know so they can terminate on the grounds of gender is very small.

However, these things are always going to happen, but they are handled differently. I remember my Mother telling me that the woman next to her after having my brother (way before it was possible to know before birth) was in absolute despair because she had just had 4th girl and although she loved them, in her words "he won't stop until he has had a boy" meaning her Husband. Would that woman have had a better life if she had been allowed to terminate rather than being forced to have god knows how many children until a boy was achieved. What kind of life did the little girls have, with each one being viewed as a 'disappointment'.

There are never easy answers when it comes to this type of thing but as i say, if there is to be a policy, it needs to be across all the NHS and Private Hospitals.

It all seems very nanny state, its not like the UK has some abortion epidemic like parts of Eastern Europe. It seems like a policy created by the Daily Mail to stop all the "foreigners" aborting their babies.