Yale University School of Medicine conducted a research showing that the prolonged and frequent use of ultrasound causes brain abnormalities in the developing fetus.
But wait, this study was done in mice. Forbes.com reports, 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.
However, in human pregnancies, Dr. Joshua Copel suggested that ultrasound should be performed for medical reasons, and not for entertainment.
Copel is a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at Yale and spokesman for the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG). He was not involved in the study.
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When I was pregnant, I always had ultrasound examinations in every month’s appointment. My doctor used it around 1-2 minutes.
This research kinda makes me shock a little bit. I hope the researchers make other studies in the future. And I hope those studies won’t have bad results. Well, that’s just my wish.
What about you moms? Did you have ultrasound while carrying you babies? How many times did you have it?
If you get pregnant again, will you still have ultrasound exams?
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This is a hot topic all over the internet. I will copy here what I wrote in a webgroup that I am in (sorry if it’s long!)
I have strong feelings about this, too. With our first son, I was still very
“unknowledgable” about so many things. They did an ultrasound at about 8 weeks
to try to determine due date. Then the routine one around 20 weeks old. At that
ultrasound they couldn’t get a good enough look at the kidneys so they ordered
another one. In that one they still could not get a good look at the kidneys and
were afraid there was a kidney abnormality. (I was told these results over the
phone by a very cold nurse.) This freaked me out and they told me that he could
be born with just one or no kidneys. (Remember I was a first time
mom!)
They would do an ultrasound every month until he was born. Then when he was
born they would do an ultrasound on him to see just what the kidneys looked
like. (I don’t know why they had to do all those ultrasounds then if they were
not going to be able to do anything until he was born anyway.) AND we didn’t
want to know the sex and had to tell the tech every time not to tell us! IN THE
END… he was born and WAS FINE. Kidneys were there and no problems.
HOWEVER… he is our child with the rare form of epilepsy (started at age 2
1/2)… a brain disorder.
No one has been able to explain WHY he has epilepsy. I have always suspected the
ultrasounds could have played a roll and/or vaccinations.–
I think I will agree to have only one ultrasound at 20 weeks to make sure everything is ok, and then that’s it unless it’s an emergency.
That’s my story!
Stephanie
Stephanie, thank you for sharing your story. I’m sorry about your son. Hope he’s doing well everyday. Being a first-time mom is difficult for some women.
Honestly, having an ultrasound exam, to me, was entertaining. Hearing the baby’s hearbeat was so exciting. I bet many moms feel the same, too. But if I get pregnant again, I think I won’t do it for many times, unless it’s an emergency.
Love,
Adwina
With my daughter, we had two prolonged (more than 10 minutes) ultrasounds, at 20 and 24 weeks. Any other ultrasounds were short and used to check positioning only, since she was breech.
I do hope to have ultrasounds at appts. with any future children. I don’t need one at every appt., but a schedule similar to last time would be fine with me. I know that many research tests involve exposing the subjects to higher levels and longer exposure times than would normally be used.