Posted on 02/03/2006 7:22:56 PM PST by paltz
2006
Local 6 News reported that the debate over "keepsake" ultrasounds is playing out in several states. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has already stopped them, according to the report.
Insurance does not pay for the photos and most doctors will not prescribe them. However, the "keepsake" ultrasound franchise has become a hit, according to the report.
The United Imaging Partners company lists seven franchise sites in Florida, including Orlando.
Fetal Specialist Dr. Rachel Humphrey said she is concerned about the ultrasounds. Humphrey said three patients have received inaccurate information from "keepsake" ultrasounds.
"They really think that everything is OK and they are not necessarily having them reviewed by anyone with any kind of training and that's really the danger," Humphrey said.
"Is there a deception here?" Holfeld asked ultrasound registered OB-GYN Dwan Wright.
"A huge deception, huge," Wright said. "And my fear is that these places are going to be popping up on every corner."
Wright works for a company that was one of the first to offer 3-D baby photos in Central Florida, according to the report.
Wright said many companies in Florida have high priced medical equipment with inexperienced employees at the controls.
"That's happening right now?" Holfeld asked.
"That's happening," Wright said.
"How is that possible?" Holfeld asked.
"No one has done a thorough investigation," Wright said.
Local 6 News reported that Florida has no laws or regulations for "keepsake" ultrasounds.
The Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning against non-medical sessions, calling them "ultrasounds for entertainment."
The administration was most concerned about long-term exposure to "jarring vibrations and rise in temperature," Holfeld said.
Dr. Lennard Greenbaum, who is a specialist in fetal diagnostics with Arnold Palmer Hospital, said he thinks state legislation should be in place to ban "keepsake" ultrasounds.
"We do not know if there are any biological effects but if there is not medical information to be gained, why take the risk?" Greenbaum said.
Most Florida companies require proof that the expectant mother is under the care of a doctor before performing an ultrasound.
After seeing the Local 6 News story, Rep. Ric Keller is reviewing potential risks with the FDA and national legislation is possible, Holfeld said.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
I guess you only have you have a "choice" when you want an abortion.
I'm a genuine pro-life guy, but I find this a little creepy.
Looks like a Polaroid sort of snap.
so it's okay to abort a "fetus," but not take a picture of one because this might cause the "fetus" harm... sounds like "liberal logic" to me...
When I was pregnant I looked into doing this. The website for the local office made it very clear that these were ultrasounds done just for keepsakes and not for medical purposes. The pregnancy turned out to be very high risk and I ended up have so many sonograms from the doctor's office that I can wallpaper my son's room with them. No need for the cutesy keepsake ones.
We've had ultrasound pics for our last three. My ob-gyn is now handing out CDs with pics of baby at 11 weeks. Now that I'm thinking about it, our seventh child was breach a few weeks before birth, so I was sent to a problem pregnancy doctor. He gave me pics of baby two weeks before she was born. You could see her dimples and other facial features. The pics we have from ultrasounds are nothing I frame or anything. They are from around 11 weeks gestation.
For that matter, we had babies born in 1997 and 1999 and I recall sitting through ultrasounds with Mrs. B. both times and I'm sure the tech gave us hard copies of the pictures.
Sounds like a turf war to me.
Jeez, you're gonna drag this out when I bring home a date, right?
The difference is in your cases it was the tech or OB. The complaint here is anyone with the machine setting up shop and doing ultrasounds just to make a buck, like it was Glamour Shots or something.
I think the doctors have a legitimate concern that unqualified people are giving ultrasounds for no good reason.
my wife and I have pics of our twins litterally almost from the moment of conception, since we did IVF.
Aw geez mom!
Baby ultrasounds done at the Mall are tacky and ripe for abuse.
It's certainly a turf war. Docs hate anyone not of their fold doing procedures they think of as theirs, and letting too much information fall into the hands of mere patients.
But it's also a religious war. The problem is that pro-life centers have been using ultrasounds to show expectant mothers their babies in utero. In some states, the pro-abortion lobbies have tried to get laws passed prohibiting anyone not an MD from showing a woman an ultrasound, just to prevent this.
The abortionist religion decrees that unborn babies aren't human until the abortionists say they are. The problem for abortionists is that this technology functions like the little boy at the parade at the end of The Emperor's New Clothes who yells, "The Emperor is naked!"
The ultrasounds (and "the stones themselves") cry out, "It's a baby!"
With our seventh, there were quite a few ultrasounds done. I never once heard a warning that doing a bunch of ultrasounds was dangerous to the baby. If I had, I probably would have said, "We'll just hope for the best." Are these glamour shots of babies in utero being used for clinical purposes?
Rather than misleading information, I have a gut feel that this is what this outcry is all about. 3 babies had "misleading info?" This is a turf war, and the new ultrasounds are so fantastic that it kills the ol' "glob of tissue" argument.
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