Ultrasound Might Affect Baby’s Brain Development
Aug 9th, 2006 by Lilian
Is this yet another news that will get all the expectant parents worried? I hope not because many birth defects can be detected with ultrasound. Some of the cases were detected when the babies were in the womb and it makes the hospital, doctor and parents more prepared. For e.g. some hospital may not have the facilities to care for certain cases and can arrange for the parents to give birth at bigger and better equipped hospital. I have heard of a few cases like these from my critical ill children’s parents group.
So, expectant moms, don’t let news like these deter you from a joyful pregnancy. Usually, your ob-gynae will give you a quick scan for the benefit of your baby. It usually last less than five minutes in most cases.
TUESDAY, Aug. 8 (HealthDay News) — Preliminary findings in mice suggest that fetal ultrasound might affect newborn brain development.
In baby mice whose mothers were exposed to ultrasound for 30 minutes or longer during pregnancy, a small but significant number of nerve cells did not migrate to their proper locations in the brain, Yale University researchers reported in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Note that these experiments were done on mice.
But Dr. Pasko Rakic, chairman of the Yale department of neurobiology and leader of the study, was quick to offer parents reassurance about the safety of ultrasound — done for the proper reasons — in human pregnancies.
“If I had a daughter and she was pregnant, I would recommend she had it for medical reasons,” Rakic said.
Copel stressed that, to minimize any risk, “ultrasound should be performed for medical reasons, not for entertainment.”
For the sentence marked in bold, I suppose parents are wise enough to get an ultrasound to check for the baby’s health and not purely to find out the baby’s sex. Having said that, there are many centres for 3D and 4D scans sprouting up. I personally did went for a 3D scan because of my previous premature birth. But I heard there are parents who just want to do it because it is available and it is cool to get a picture of the baby in the womb.
Nevertheless, Copel said, there is good reason to follow ACOG guidelines, which state that “the lowest possible ultrasound setting should be used to get the necessary diagnostic information” and that the examination should be as brief as possible. A typical pregnancy ultrasound tests lasts 15 to 20 minutes.
“Time and range should be kept to a minimum,” Copel said.
While ACOG recommends that ultrasound examinations be done for specific reasons, such as a suspected ectopic pregnancy, a possible miscarriage or detection of possible birth defects, many physicians include one examination as part of routine care, at 18 to 20 weeks of pregnancy
Full story on Forbes
I agree that ultrasound scans is useful to detect any birth defects however it feels overdone by the docs these days. Practically every visit includes a scan. I did question my gynae on whether it was necessary.
hmmm.. it is one way to know if the little one is doing ok, i guess?
this news is kinda worrying. i’ve had a few scares and have quite a number of ultrasounds – perhaps more than the usual expectant mother
I just like to share my experiences with all of you. For No. 1, I delivered in Australia. How many scans? TWO!!!!! One at 5 months to check for Down syndrome. The second one when I was in labour.
No. 2, was in KL, Malaysia. Every visit to the obgyn, he wanted to scan. I told him, only scan if v necessary, otherwise leave my stomach alone! All they wanna do is to charge $$$ for it!
I remember posting about my monthly scan (till 5th/6th month) on a US site and many of the Mums there were surprised at their frequency. Will keep a watch on this for next baby!