Ultrasound? - Page 2

[MammaB21]

Originally Posted by CorasMama

well, 60 minutes in the u/s room is NOT 60 minutes of exposure! There's the arranging you and your clothes, the waiting for the medical assistant to leave and the u/s tech to come in, then the getting settled, then the u/s itself, then the waiting for the radiologist or peri to evaluate what they've seen and come in and talk to you. There's a whole lot of lying there with/without gel on your belly and NOTHING ELSE HAPPENING.

Not to mention that just because the tech is on your belly doesn't mean the machine is on. My tech was really nice about the exposure factor and let me know before hand that they try to limit the exposure. So they get a pic freeze it on the screen, take measurements, mark pics with stats, turn machine back on and look for the next pic. So the whole time their just sitting there with the wand on your belly taking measurements of the skull and femur, you aren't getting any actual exposure. Express to the tech that you are concerned and ask for him/her to turn off exposure whenever possible. Mine even told me each time she turned it off......"Now I'm turning the machine off so right now there is no exposure. Okay, now I'll be turning it back on. Got the picture, turning it back off again." Very respectful of my concerns, but I think that is pretty standard procedure even if they aren't as 'nice' about it.

As for whether or not to get it, I definitely don't think they are necessary. But for my personal comfort, if I were to UC (planning a homebirth with midwife if we can afford it and UC is a possibility if we can't) I'd get the 20 weeks ultrasound (and did...lol). It's part of my preparation and reassurance that I'm continuing to have a low risk pregnancy and am a good candidate for a homebirth/UC.

[Cuddlebaby]

bottom line is YOU ARE THE BOSS!! you have decent concerns and need an u/s. that's a fact. regardless of whether anyone here agrees w/ you getting one. so, here's what you do. put down the conditions. Before he starts, say, I have some things we need to go over.

check for omphalocele, # of fetuses, position of placenta and that's it! (if that's it). Make this the shortest u/s of your career. mine was happy to do that 7 minutes.

[Ottbabies]

Originally Posted by Cuddlebaby

bottom line is YOU ARE THE BOSS!! you have decent concerns and need an u/s. that's a fact. regardless of whether anyone here agrees w/ you getting one. so, here's what you do. put down the conditions. Before he starts, say, I have some things we need to go over.

check for omphalocele, # of fetuses, position of placenta and that's it! (if that's it). Make this the shortest u/s of your career. mine was happy to do that 7 minutes.

Thanks! I think that's exactly what I will say.

[claddaghmom]

I also held onto the desire of having one ultrasound in case of a rare defect that would require medical intervention. I am in a HB unfriendly area and the idea of showing up the hospital with a SN baby after an UC makes me shiver with fear.

(I'd love to see if I'm having a boy or girl as well hehe )

But then I was reading that when they studied scanned and unscanned babies, the difference in outcome was small or insignificant. At the same time, some of the studies simply showed those in the scanned group had higher numbers of abortions.

So I have all these questions...

Do we not have an accurate idea of outcome b/c those identified with defects were aborted?

Or is it that the probability of a severe defect is so rare, the study was useless (on that level) and the increased number of abortions were misdiagnosed?

Anyways, the scarcity of it all just made me want to reassess if I should bother getting a scan or not. I just don't know.

And if I did get a scan, it would be a quick one, later in the pregnancy, at a free standing place....so how much help would that be??

OP, I feel for you!

[UCmamaToMany]

I'd much rather have a single scan and find out everything is okay than give birth at home and realize my baby had major issues an u/s could have picked up.

I've had both scanned and unscanned pregnancies. I do NOT have u/s before 16 weeks. That is my olny condition because the studies show earlier u/s scan cause more damage/miscarriage than later scans.

Considering a u/s verses an amnio, I'd rather do an u/s scan.

What "could" they find wrong with the baby? Probably more than I would like to know. I mean I just learned a new word and condition today called "omphalocele". I know there are other rare complications such as other organs that are growing outside the body, deformed limbs, cleft pallets, etc etc etc. Are some more serious than others? Yes. Would a deformity make me abort? No. However, I'd at least be prepared with KNOWLEDGE when baby arrived, one way or another.

I've been very blessed to have u/s scans show me perfectly healthy babies, except one. That was my m/c baby in 2008. When I started bleeding/spotting near 10 weeks I debated and struggled with allowing an u/s to be performed. When the bleeding picked up I needed to know if I was miscarrying or perhaps it was an abruption of my placenta or placenta previa. Instead we saw a 5wk old baby that stopped growing.

It was difficult but I now had the knowledge I needed. I was lucky enough and grateful enogh to be able to go home and miscarry there without an invasive D&C.

I also like to gender peek which is usually my main reason for having an u/s. I full heartedly agree with listening to your intuition and heart on this issue. No one else knows what you are feeling or what you know via intuition. Those are stong and powerful tools, we as women have.