Updated 8 July 2021
The Birth Company, opened in Alderley Edge in 2017, offers diagnostic pregnancy, gynaecological and fertility ultrasound scans to self-funding women over 18.
The Birth Company is located on the third floor of a newly refurbished medical centre and has a purpose-built facility for ultrasound and medical examination. The building is wheelchair accessible and has free on-site parking. The service has a reception area with two waiting areas with adequate seating. There are two identical scanning rooms, a meeting room and a staff room. The service has its own toilets.
This service has a sister clinic located in London.
The Birth Company offers a range of ultrasound diagnostic screening scans to pregnant mothers in relation to different stages of pregnancy:
- early pregnancy scans/ viability scan/ dating ultrasound scan at 6 to 10 weeks’ gestation
- Harmony, Panorama or SAFE Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) from 10 weeks’ gestation, which is a blood screening test for three targeted chromosomal conditions of Down’s syndrome (T21), Edward’s syndrome (T18) or Patau's syndrome (T13)
- nuchal translucency scans (prenatal screening scan to detect cardiovascular abnormalities in a fetus) at 11 to 14 weeks’ gestation
- reassurance scans / early anatomy scans at 12 to 24 weeks’ gestation
- sexing scan, gender scan from 16 weeks’ gestation
- anomaly scan / anatomy scan / morphology scan at 18 to 24 weeks’ gestation
- cervical / cervix length scan at 14 to 36 weeks’ gestation
- fetal wellbeing / growth scan, includes doppler scan and presentation at 23 to 40 weeks’ gestation
- 3D/4D scan (HD live) at 26 to 32 weeks’ gestation.
The service also carries out general gynaecology scanning and assists In vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics abroad for patients who are undergoing fertility treatment. It performs gynaecological scans, follicle tracking and endometrial lining scans.
During the pandemic, the service stopped offering non-essential investigations such as fertility assessment, sexing scans and 4D scans.
The Birth Company is registered for the following regulated activities:
- Diagnostic and screening procedures.
- Maternity and midwifery services.
- Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
- Family planning.
We inspected diagnostic and screening services provided by this clinic.
The service has had the same registered manager since 2017.
This is the first time this location has been inspected.
We carried out a transitional monitoring call with the service on 12 February 2021. The transitional regulatory approach is a consistent and structured approach to monitoring and relationship management, with clear areas of focus based on a streamline set of Key Lines of Enquiry, through the Transitional Monitoring Activity. Information gathered during this call prompted the need for us to inspect the service.