A baby scan at 12 weeks, taken at Medway Maritime Hospital

by Nisha Chopra

It is the first picture that goes into the baby book, but Medway Maritime Hospital is raking in thousands by charging mums £7 or more for baby scan photos.

While other hospitals in Kent give the ultrasound pictures away, figures show that between 2008/2009 and February 15 this year Medway NHS Foundation Trust made £182,466 by charging £7 for one set of baby scan photos and £24 for four sets.

Nicola Higgin, 34, from Walderslade, who is 19 weeks pregnant, paid £13 for two sets of her ultrasound photo.

She said: "When you book your scan they ask you to pay for the photos beforehand, so if your baby's not playing ball you might end up with a set of photos not showing you much."

Mums-to-be are charged £7 for baby scans at Medway Maritime Hospital

But despite the charges at Medway Maritime, a number of women claim to have at times been given the photos free.

Su Button, 36, of St Mary's Island said: "I went for my 22 weeks scan and I didn't ask for photos but they had already printed them off and gave them free of charge and at my last scan I got another free picture.

"They're possibly making profit on it because they know mums will pay for it and that's been proved by the money they've taken over the last three years."

Between April 2008 and 2011, Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust has made £245,472, charging £5.

But East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust do not charge anything.

A spokesman from Medway NHS Foundation Trust said the charge was needed to cover the costs of equipment.

She said: "This service is solely provided so that parents can take away images of their baby.

"As it is not provided for clinical purposes (clinicians only need digital images) the trust has to maintain equipment to ensure that this service is available for those parents who wish to use it."

Dartford NHS Trust said: "All scans we take are now stored digitally so we buy the paper especially for the print-outs."