Independent Ultrasound companies are popping up all over the place offering parents a 3/4D view of their unborn child. In July I wrote about these businesses stating that too many ultrasounds are not good for your fetus.

Daily Mail has a story today that say parents are being warned against paying for keepsake baby scans of their child in the womb.

Doctors claim the growing practice of “boutique ultrasonography” could put unborn babies at risk.

Mothers-to-be are routinely offered 2D ultrasound pictures by hospital and clinics but can buy moving images of the foetus on a CD-ROM or a DVD for up to $250.

In advanced 3D scans, ultrasound echoes are digitally enhanced so they create a life-like picture of the unborn baby while 4D shows the foetus moving in real time.

A report in the British Medical Journal says several medical bodies have “reservations” about the “casual exposure” of unborn babies to the technology.

They include the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, and the French Academy of Medicine.

The FDA says “Although there is no evidence that these physical effects can harm the foetus, public health experts, clinicians and industry agree that casual exposure to ultrasound, especially during pregnancy, should be avoided.”

There are also concerns about how staff at commercial clinics deal with the discovery of a foetal abnormality, although some doctors offer keepsake images after they have performed ultrasound for medical reasons.

The report says: “Beyond spreading a little happiness, the case for non-medical imaging relies principally on bonding: the sense of attachment between a mother and her unborn child.

“The evidence that ultrasound images can foster this comes from 2D scans, but there is no evidence that 3D scans are more effective in enhancing maternal foetal attachment.”

In the UK, the British Medical Ultrasound Society (BMUS) does not have a specific policy on non-medical imaging, but it currently updating its guidance.

Dr Paul Sidhu, chairman of the scientific and education committee of BMUS, detects what he describes as an “overall sense of disapproval” among his colleagues for this development.

He said research is currently under way to find out if viewing the foetus in 3D might help spot abnormalities such as cleft lip.

3/4D Ultrasound machines are for the doctor to take a better look at your baby in case of abnormalities, not for overly eager parents to get a peek before the baby is due. I know it’s tough, but for the health of your baby, you have to wait.

Each mom is given usually 2 ultrasound during her pregnancy. The first one around 10 weeks and then a big one between 18 and 22 weeks to check that the baby is on schedule and growing properly. After that all you have is your imagination.

Related Articles:

Private 3D/4D Ultrasounds

Good news for moms who are fearful of having an amniocentesis.

Reuters is reporting that a new non-invasive test that examines fetal DNA can pick up genetic abnormalities such as Downs syndrome.

Unlike more intrusive tests that may raise the risk of miscarriage, the new diagnostic tool developed by the US company Ravgen poses no threat to the mother or fetus.

It uses fetal DNA extracted from blood samples taken from the mother to screen for chromosomal abnormalities. In a preliminary study of 60 pregnant women reported online by The Lancet medical journal the test produced promising results.

“Right now in the market there is no test available that can reliably do what we do in this study which is, without needing any invasive procedure, to determine whether a baby has an abnormality or not,” said Ravinder Dhallan, lead author of the study and the head of Ravgen.

The blood test correctly diagnosed Down’s syndrome, one of the most common genetic abnormalities, in two cases. It also produced a false positive and a false negative.

Women 35 years and older have been advised to have genetic testing for Down’s syndrome and other disorders. But recently the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has recommended that all women be given the option of having genetic testing.

Standard tests to detect Down’s syndrome include chorionic villus sampling (CVS) and amniocentesis. CVS, which is performed in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, analyses placenta cells to detect any genetic abnormalities.

Amniocentesis is usually done at about 16 weeks and involves inserting a needle to withdraw a small amount of amniotic fluid.

The new test detects genetic abnormalities in the fetus by looking at single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, which are tiny variations in DNA.

Down’s Syndrome occurs when a baby inherits three copies of chromosome 21 instead of two. The risk of having a Down’s baby increases with maternal age.

Dhallan said the test can be adapted to look for abnormalities in any chromosome or single gene disorders.

Related Articles:

• Amniocentesis Not Linked To Miscarriage

Congratulations to Patrick and Jillian Dempsey on the birth of their twin boys.

The twins, named Darby Galen and Sullivan Patrick, were born in Los Angeles. They join 4-year-old sister Talula in the Dempsey household.

Dempsey, 41, who plays Derek “Dr. McDreamy” Shepherd on Grey’s Anatomy and recently starred in the movie Freedom Writers, announced the pregnancy in September on Live with Regis and Kelly.

In January, he posed for Life with his head resting on Jillian’s pregnant belly.

Asked how fatherhood has changed him, he told the magazine, “Now, making money is about providing for my children. And being a father makes you look at yourself. You look at your marriage and go, ‘How do I improve this? How do I keep growing and create a stable environment for my children?’ ”

Dempsey and his wife met in 1994 when he came into her salon for a haircut. (She now has her own high-end cosmetics line.) They married in 1999 at the Dempsey family farmhouse in Maine.

SOURCE:PEOPLE
PHOTO CREDIT:LIFE MAGAZINE