Is it safe for baby to have many ultrasounds?
echuca03 asked:
Sometimes I find the answers where the words of the people had the United States more then a month later and others, etc. … I understand it 's nice and reinsurance to see and hear the baby but it can be dangerous to have too many ultrasounds ?
March 1st, 2009 at 8:14 am
It is a non-invasive proceedure so no. I have had 5 due to medical reasons of my own and the doctor has personally assured me each time that it is fine.
March 4th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
nothing has really been proven…different doctors have different feelings about it tho…i see a midwife and for that reason i only get one ultrasound my whole pregnancy and that will be at 20 weeks…
March 5th, 2009 at 12:00 am
I had one almost every time I went to the doctor for the first 6 months of my pregnancy with my son (due to a history of miscarriages and them not being able to find his heartbeat ) He was born healthy and strong and too smart for his own good (and my sanity).
March 5th, 2009 at 2:08 am
Ultrasounds are safe for both you and baby.
March 8th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
At this point, the research is inconclusive. No research has ever shown that multiple ultrasounds are harmful to the fetus. The fear is that the negative effects may take place place later in life. Ultrasounds have only been around for about 25 years, so there are no long term studies. I think most drs recommend limiting the ultrasounds as much as possible, unless there is a need to do them frequently.
March 10th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
I have never heard any thing about too many ultrasounds causing problems for babys.
If they did doctors probably would not allow women to have so many.
Good question
March 11th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
ultrasounds are not xrays and arent harmful to the baby at all =]. its just sound waves at a frequency that we cannot hear.
March 13th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
I had to get several ultrasounds because our baby’s heart defects and 2-vessel cord were discovered at the 20 week ultrasound. After that, the pediatric cardiac surgeon wanted to keept a watch on the growth of the heart, so at 21 weeks, we had a ultrasound for an echocardiogram of the baby, and had four more echo ultrasounds after that (every four weeks or so), plus a few more so my perinatalogists could see how the baby was growing. Probably the ultrasounds did the least harm compared to what all was done to him after he was born. If he’d looked fine and healthy at the 20 week ultrasound, that may have been the only one I’d have had.
What is much more controversial is using MRI. MRI is apparently the only way to tell if there are problems like missing veins or hypoplastic lungs, since the lungs aren’t expanded in utero. They think a baby exposed to an MRI machine in utero may develop hearing problems and such, so it is rarely ever done. Some doctors haven’t even heard of it.
March 16th, 2009 at 8:10 am
Ultrasound, as a diagnostic tool in pregnancy has only been used routinely for a relatively short time – about 20 or 30 years.
In the UK thirty years ago, I had one, but that was the exception rather than the rule. They were hardly ever used then, but if they did use it, they did it once.
At present we have no way of knowing the long term effects of many, high frequency sound waves on the unborn, but we are assuming that there are no detrimental effects.
If there is damage to the hearing of the newborn, which shows itself later in life, then those effects would start showing up in the next few years, so we will have to wait and see if the generation which was exposed to ultrasound first, starts to have problems as they age.
Good question!
EDIT: I think it would be naive to think that “Doctor’s wouldn’t give them to us if they were not safe”, suggested by a reply below mine, historically, doctors have often done things that are later shown not to be good for us – Thalidomide for morning sickness, Electro-shock Therapy for depression, tens of millions of un-necessary surgical procedures, repeated X-rays, seniors who are taking many un-necessary drugs, Ritalin or other drugs for kids who are over-medicated to make them quieter, the list is a long one. Ultimately, we are the ones who are responsible for our health and it is good to question the safety of any procedure.
March 16th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
well i have had 6 so far and im 31 weeks, i Still have another 2 to go yet, they must be safe else the doctors wouldn’t give them to you, i have to have them as my pregnancy is high risk and they have to keep an eye on my babies development in case they need to get her out quick, so i am all for them if medically needed.