Any Any reason *not* to do the 20-week ultrasound?

I had one last time and don't plan on any this time.
My sil, who is a nursing student was really concerned about me not having one. She claims that they can pick up all kinds of serious problems and that I *must* have one.
I personally feel that they are 1) irritating to the baby. All those kicks at the ultrasound machine are not just to be cute. And 2) I rarely hear of someone saying that they found out something that changed the course of their pregnancy or delivery except to say that they wound up worrying needlessly about false positives. Plus, a friend of mine had an ultrasound that didn't catch her son's heart defect. They still wound up at the hospital with a baby in need of heart surgery with no warning.
If I feel like I need one for reassurance, or my mw thinks one is warranted, by all means. But otherwise, I think I'll just enjoy an old-fashioned pregnancy. With cuter maternity clothes and better nutrition of course.

Gosh it's funny my dh is just chomping at the bit to find out the sex! We have one scheduled for Wed. I will be 19 weeks on Thursday! ( I can't figure out how to change my ticker thingy) Anyways I didnt want one because he of course wants to know if it's a boy! We have two girls! But now that it is coming up I am excited to know. Mostly because this pregnancy has been sooooooo different then the last two! We had an ultrasound at 9 weeks to make sure it wasn't muliples so this is my second and hopefully last ultrasound! Again I feel like you other ladies if it makes him happy then that's a good thing! We are planning a homebirth this time and he's been ultra supportive about it, so what can I say! I can't believe we are half way ladies! :

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This is the kind of worry I have. I already gave some thought to the potential for u/s to harm the baby - I was okay with one because I would have UNDERestimated how far along I was by a week to 2 weeks.

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Sounds like we're in the same boat.

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Go to the very top of the screen to the "user cp" link, once you're there go to "edit signature". Then just change the number of * before your icon and the number after-- essentially just moving the icon down the road a few steps.

So it used to be like: "*** :15***", make it "15*** :20****"

I personally have a slight problem with getting one just for the heck of it so that would be my reason for not getting a 20 week. So far all of the studies that I've read about have encompassed more than 1 u/s so it's something to think about since you've had 1 already. One study had just 2 throughout the whole pregnancy and they still found problems in the test group. So that's something to think about. I'm getting one today to rule out twins since I'm dating large. The midwife has to know as they don't deliver multiples at the birthing center so to be approved to birth there I have to get it. I guess knowing if I'm having more than one is a good thing too. If my size were fine though I would not be getting one the whole pregnancy unless something else came up. My midwifes are fine with that too. It's not a full on u/s though. She described it as quick and it won't be a structure checking u/s. It's basically just how many are in there and you're done is what she said. I think the faster the better. And I agree that things are missed and things are misread and things are incorrect on them. So it would be more of what do you want to put up with? The likely hood that they miss something and you are incorrectly reassured or the possibility of unnecessary worry or the unknown of either by not getting one at all. It's really a personal decision.

I just wanted to quickly add that of the four children I have had, one ultrasound gave us info that I feel was vital for her care. It was info we would have never known about without ultrasound until it was too late to do anything about. With the info we were able to save at least one kidney. There is no doubt it would have died without treatment, possibly resulting in abdominal infection and emergency surgery. This was a surprise. I had no family history or any reason to believe there was a defect. I am grateful for that ultrasound.

Another child's u/s gave us reason to have extreme worry, but was resolved in a later ultrasound. The worry was originally caused before the ultrasound (bleeding and very slow heart rate) and more worries were raised with the ultrasound, but the next u/s put the worries to rest.

With another baby, I had a u/s to rule out heart defects due to baby's heart skipping every 5th beat for awhile during the pregnancy. This ultrasound reassured me that everything was okay.

Only one pregnancy has had no worries at all.

I am scheduled for an ultrasound with this babe a few days before Christmas.

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Do you have links/references for those studies? I'm really interested in seeing them, because this is a topic that I'm considering.

I had 2 ultrasounds with my first, at 9 weeks and 20 weeks.

With this one, I refused the early one but we are planning the one at 20 weeks. And I admit that the main reason is to learn the gender of this baby. I tried talking my husband out of it, but I'm not very convinced so therefore can't be very convincing. But evidence that I can weigh against that decision would be very helpful if you can cite the references.

Why don't you wait a litle longer and get a 25 week to 28 week ultrasound. This *should* eliminate a lot of the needless worrying for false warning signs. The heart will be able to be mapped out very well and all of the organs will be developed enough to see if there truly is a problem. When ultrasounds are preformed on organs at 20 weeks- a lot of times they aren't done "cooking" so too many false positives are identified.

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i think that is a brilliant idea. at my 20 wk ultrasound (so DH could know the sex of the baby ), they told me there were problems with Mr. Pants's kidneys and there was all sorts of needless worrying and retesting and sleepless nights (for me, from worry) and the problem resolved itself by 26 weeks or so. my sweet boy is totally fine!

this time around, if i get an ultrasound, it will be later rather than sooner.