Ultrasound Safety

great info, thank you for posting it.

i am still not sure that ultrasounds are completely safe. i mean, just a few decades ago, doctors were using x-rays to check fetal growth. X-RAYS! there were convinced it was totally safe. i do know that the noise the u/s made in utero distressed avery-fetus. i got to hear it briefly with the u/s and external fetal monitoring and i don't blame her one bit.

i had lots of u/s with bailey and the twins. i had 3 or 4 with bailey, and 12 with the twins. this time, i've already had two, which i really didn't want, but having miscarried only a month prior to getting pregnant and having severe bleeding early on, i was anxious to find out what was going on. i'll have one more at 20 weeks, if the midwife and i think it is a good idea, but i have always wanted to keep pregnancy and birth as low tech as possible.

Thanks for posting that.

I have heard a lot of bad things about ultrasounds- one being that that ultra sounds are painful to a fetus's ears. The scary thing about it to me is that everyone just asusmes tehy are safe.

Just curious - are any of your children left-handed? I read a study a few years ago where they'd found that women who had had three or more U/S had a higher incidence of their babies being left-handed. They didn't know why, but it was just something they'd noticed.

Very interesting. My sister-in-law is 7 weeks pregnant and has already had 2 ultrasounds done. Her doctor told her that they do them at every visit because "it helps the bonding process". Can you believe that?

I hope my first reply didn't come off as judgmental. I had four ultrasounds during my pregnancy; although I don't know if the first one counted because iI would have only conceived about a day or two before and they couldn't even see anything (it was for unrelated reasons.)

Anyways, I had the ultrasounds because I was having cyst and endometriosis complications, so I know they are quite useful as a diagnostic tool. I'm just worried about any possible ill effects.

I had three or more ultrasounds with Isabella and she is left-handed (neither bd or I are). My cousin also had muliple ultrasounds with her child and she is left handed too. I had never heard that before. Interesting.

eh, it's too early to tell which hand they prefer. b is 3, but "writes" with her right hand. ransom and avery are both young enough that they are basically ambidexterous.

interesting stuff. I had two ultrasounds with Dylan, but i was really jealous of a friend who had an ultrasound every visit. Her pregnancy seemed more "real" than mine did, but now I'm glad my doctor didn't do that.

I saw an some show how places are opening up where you can get non-medical ultrasounds during pregnancy, like fetus photo studio kinda things. They talked on the show about how it might not be safe, and how you proably wouldn't want to learn in a strip mall that your fetus had some sort of medical problem. Hmm.

I had one regular ultrasound and three vaginal ultrasounds while I was pregnant because doctors couldn't tell if I was in labor (smart guys, I wasn't, btw). I wouldn't get one done every visit - I hated stripping down and I absolutely hated that goo on my stomach.

I've heard too lissa, that it emits a really loud piercing sound, and when you're viewing the fetus, you're viewing it while it's in distress from the sound.

obviously what i heard from the ultrasound and fetal monitor is not exactly what the fetus hears, but it was a sharp, loud, clicking noise. every single time i had an ultrasound or doppler, avery-fetus would get as far away from it as she could. and when she was as far away from it as she could get, she'd kick and push on the spot the u/s wand or doppler was.

i was in the hospital for a biophysical profile (i forgot, that was another u/s i had with the twins), and we couldn't find heartbeats, so they got out the u/s machine and tried to align the fetal monitors with the u/s picture. the fetal monitors pick up noise in utero, and when using the u/s, the noise was really unsettling. it's obviously not a noise that is "natural" to the fetus' normal existance, and i can totally see why it distresses some.

I think it'd make an awesome sticky. There's a lot of doctors and nurses that get pregnant women to have an ultrasound just about every visit, which is completely unnecessary if your pregnancy is healthy and low-risk. It's great to know that ultrasounds haven't been proven to be safe for a developing pregnancy, and that risks are completely unknown. Yeah, it's nice to be able to see what you're carrying, but not very necessary and could cause problems with the pregnancy. It's up in the air, but better safe then sorry. Ultrasounds should only be used if there is a medical need to do so.

I am not sure if this has been mentioned, but, one thing we do know about ultrasound from studies is that women who have had routine ultrasounds at every visit, or more than 5, have a tendency to have smaller babies than women who have not. So, we know that the development of the fetus is affected in some way.

i wouldnt be surprised if this doctor is anti-choice. most anti-choicers want to force women to view ultrasounds before their abortions hoping they will suddenly bond with the fetus and not abort. they are practically pissing themselves with joy over the "4-d" machines because it "looks like a baby"

Very interesting. I have read lots of things about ultrasounds,and have heard about this before.

I've never heard the left-handed thing though! Brielle(even though she is 21 months) favors her left. I'm left-handed too. BD is right.

I had 5 ultrasounds when pregnant with Brielle. And I seen a midwife.
My 8 pounder didnt get affected.

Women who get more u/s's usually have some sort of problem, THAT could be why their babies are smaller. I had 2 u/s's with my son and he is left handed. I had about 6 I think with Jenna and she seems to favor her right hand. I had a ton with Kayla, and we don't know yet wether she is right or left handed.

Now I haven't looked into these studies, but any credible study will take factors like that into consideration and compare healthy-non healthy pregnancies, babies, mamas, and any otehr possible variable, etc.

Thank you for posting this. I recently switched medical clinics to one in a very, shall we say, upscale part of town. They offer ultrasound at every visit but i have declined so far. Due to a previous shortened cervix I am scheduled to have one on the 15th, and another in January, and hope not to have anymore. The clinic offers those 3D ultrasounds but I just know we are gonna hear a few years from now about them causing birth defects.