Posted on 06/22/2009 9:25:22 AM PDT by raybbr
***Ultrasound is dangerous to the baby inside....***
100% False!!! The only way it could be dangerous is if you transmit enough energy to heat the target or cause acoustical cavitations. Neither are done with the low levels in this type of ultrasound. It is no more dangerous than the radiowaves that are constantly passing through your body.
I agree with you.
I had two. I wish I would have had more with my second. She was a stargazer (flipped the wrong way, pointing up) and had her arm up, so her elbow was by her ear. There was no way this baby was coming out naturally.
It would have saved me 12 hours of labor, including two of hard labor, where I said, “I’m not pushing any more. Get me a section, now.”
Our dyslexic son—no ultrasound. Our Aspberger-ish child (not diagnosed but scary smart with almost no social skills)—no ultrasound. I always read the materials given to me by obstetricians. I don’t recall any info about ultrasounds. I do recall having to sign 3 times in pregnancy #8 that I did not wish to have an amniocentesis(sp?). The same with pregnancy #9. But no warnings about ultrasounds. As a matter of fact, with #9, my ob had new computer equipment hooked to his ultrasound. He made a DVD for me of baby in utero. He was thrilled with his new gadgets and couldn’t wait to share it with me and my husband.
I was so fortunate, 3 natural births 2 without meds (first they gave me scopolomine which was a nightmare—but it had worn off by the time the baby came and they had given me an epidural, which I could have done without in hindsight). So glad I never had to have a c-section.
9? Wow, you ARE an expert! LOL
We have 10. I waited until I was 5 months along before going to the doctor with #10. (new town. didn’t have an ob and hated the thought of looking for one. i was happy with the practice i found, however.)
Actually, my C-Section wasn’t so bad.
They should have done it sooner. I had PIH and my blood pressure had spiked to 210/180 before they induced at 37 weeks.
This was my second pregnancy with PIH. In hindsight I should have pushed harder for the section and not risked labor. My biggest fear was that the placenta would bust away from the uterus and she would be left brain damaged from lack of oxygen.
I recovered pretty fast from the surgery. My two-year-old was a good girl and sat by me. I put the baby on the bed and we were good to go.
You have not read the literature. What I have said and posted is by NO means 100% false. Moreover the sonagram focuses ( whether you know it or not) the waves and radomly disoersing radio waves have travelled a long distance from their source ....I do not stand under radio towers thanks
Read the recommendations that the AMA ( not my favorite group but is one used by an awful lot of docs) and the APA for when ultrasound should be used. The do not use for category INCLUDES should not be used to determine age( those are all those measurements they take) of baby or sex of baby.
Heck, by #10 did you really need a doctor? LOL Wow! Altho I have to say, I LOVED that part of my life, pregnancy was great (except the first 4 months of sickness—but that did make sure I never gained too much!) and infants...oh, I love infants!
Most of my friend’s who have had sections say they weren’t that bad, but still, it is surgery and it does require more recovery. But, thank goodness it is safe and available these days.
Exactly! There is a risk. I wouldn’t recommend it for every pregnancy but if it’s needed, it’s not as bad as they make out.
I had one with each child. About 12 years ago there was talk about possible damage to fine hairs (maybe implicated in ear infections?). My older son was checked for position a few days before delivery, and my youngest was done right away for date confirmation.
I did get to be in a study about fetal monitors (I think the results were that there were more interventions on mothers with monitors, and I think the upshot was there were probably more unnecessary interventions).
I had an internal fetal monitor with my first delivery. Completely aside from the fact that the dr had to squeeze his hand in unspeakable places to attach the line to my undelivered baby's head (which I occasionally complain about 18 years later), being flat on my back in bed was unconducive to my labor, I think. I'm not surprised by that result.
Yup, I got the internal monitor too since my water had broken earlier and I was considered high risk at the time. It was kind of cool to watch the monitor, but they ended up doing a forceps delivery because of deceleration in the heartbeat (if I recall—its been 32 years!) which I think later they decided was normal during labor. But I may misremember parts of it. They also did a little test on my son when he was about 9 months old (not an IQ test exactly, but to see where he was developmentally). Of course, he was a genius! ;)
Yeah, I rely on my husband to confirm stuff. But I'm pretty sure he's wrong about a lot of it. LOL! I always reserve the right to remember it in the most sympathetic light to myself.
***You have not read the literature.***
It was just one of my bio-medical research projects in College. ;)
LOL yes, I think that’s the best way! ;) I will say I always ask him, when we watch movies with women giving birth, “Did I scream like that? I don’t recall screaming, since you can’t scream and push effectively.” He always agrees with me. What’s the point of screaming? Push that baby OUT and get it over with! ;)
That is an incredibly crass, callous comment.
We don't ethically do optional medical procedures with little benefit to humans on humans until they are proven dangerous.
We do them after they are proven safe. And ultrasounds are not proven safe for entertainment purposes, which is what this is.
There are so many questions about ultrasounds at this point that some doctors will not allow them to be filmed and no longer hand out pictures, since that gives the impression that they are done for entertainment.
The use of ultrasound has been suggested to be linked to childhood leukemia and autism rates. Is it true? I don't know. But we don't find out using human babies as guinea pigs.
I don't know when you had your last little one, but in the last year or two, things have changed pretty drastically.
I had to have several (twice a week for many weeks) with our last (toddler now), and my husband and I had to discuss the known (and potentially unknown but suspected) risks with our doctor.
My last pregnancy was extraordinarily high risk to the baby and to me, and in the end, we did the ultrasounds, since they gave the doctors the best idea of how to proceed and to monitor the situation.
In keeping with the AMA's recent position on the subject, my OB-Gyn will not allow them to be video taped for the family, and only immediate family can be present. She will not do them for gender identification, either. If she discovers the gender, she'll tell you if you want to know, but she won't do it for that reason alone. This is all different than my previous pregnancies.
According to the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (^):
Although the general use of ultrasound for medical diagnosis is considered safe, ultrasound energy has the potential to produce biological effects. Ultrasound bioeffects may result from scanning for a prolonged period, inappropriate use of color or pulsed Doppler ultrasound without a medical indication, or excessive thermal or mechanical index settings. The AIUM encourages patients to make sure that practitioners using ultrasound have received specific training in fetal imaging to ensure the best possible results.
These people do ultrasound for a living, and even they are clear in warning of the potential risk.
For the record, I'm still here, just a bit worse for wear, and so is our littlest one, who turned out just fine, so I think we made the right decision.
Our youngest is not yet a year old. We only had one ultrasound with him. There was no need for more. With #9, we had one at 11 weeks. (that was the one when the ob did a 3D imaging thing for us.) I’ve never taken anyone other that my husband for an ultrasound, and I think that was only 2 or 3 times out of I don’t know how many. Also, with #9 we had one at 5 months and then a few weeks later because I had had an accident of sorts. We moved in the mean time, and I had another one at our new location. I was not given any warning by any of the physicians who performed these. (3 obs and 1 tech) That was 2006.
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