Let's talk about ultrasound: to do or not to do

Continuing with conversations about pregnancy, let’s discuss the ultrasound deal, because I remember it was a big concern for me, because I had Mexican culture on one side telling me to do it every month and I had my Russian family telling me to only do it 3 times like they used to. I remember researching and freaking out, because opinions on this subject vary so widely that making up my mind might have been the hardest thing I had to do in those 9 months.

Keep in mind that I’m not a doctor and I will be expressing my own opinion that might differ from your own. Even though I know how strongly people feel about this subject, let me just tell you where I stand on it.

First of all, it is not proven to be harmful nor harmless. There are simply not enough data yet to support any claim about it’s safety. That means that in the end of the day it will always be purely your choice and you can’t get away with doctors making it for you, because they don’t know if it’s ok either.

On the debate about it’s safety I see it very simple: I think it is very probable to be harmless. Yes, everyone seem to compare it to the X-rays and saying that people got cancer from overusing it, which is true, but X-rays and ultrasound are not the same thing. X-rays are electromagnetic radiation and the harm of overusing it has been proven. Ultrasound is a high frequency sound wave. Sound. Yes, frequencies too high can cause damage, but do you really thing they will use those on your tiny baby? I think if doing the ultrasound bursted someone’s ears, it would have been noticed already. So, can it still be proven to be dangerous? Possibly. But in the end of the day it is just a sound wave and is not very probable to be harmful.

After deciding if you are ok with the physical aspect of the question you need to decide if you want it or not. Even if it’s safe, do I need it? For me it really came down to three things:

Knowing the sex. Not everyone will agree on this one, but I was dying to know if I’m having a boy or a girl. Mainly because I wanted a boy, but somehow was convinces that I was carrying a little girl. So, I simply wanted to satisfy my curiosity, which for a pregnant lady is a whole lot of a deal.

Knowing that everything is developing right. This one is important, because a lot of times you can influence some developmental problems with diet and exercise. It could be anything from a vitamin deficiency to the position of the baby. And there is no other way of detecting those small things as far as I know, so ultrasound comes very handy. I my case, for example, I was struggling to put on weight. I lost a few kilos in my first trimester instead of gaining them and barely caught up with this for the rest of pregnancy, so for me was very important to know that my baby was healthy. Because I was forcing myself to eat anyways, but of course I could have done even more if it was needed. And stress being a good trigger for anxiety and nausea, knowing that my girl was all right, even though I wasn’t, played a huge role in my well-being.

And the last, but definitely not least – the emotional part of it. When you are pregnant, you can’t help yourself sometimes and get caught under the hormones and a “blue” day. Stress is heavily underestimated as it affects not only how you feel about your life, but also can change the way you eat, how active you are and etc. Happy people are healthy people. So seeing your little child move, knowing how tiny it’s little legs are, not only know you are pregnant because of a plain test, but also because you can see your little love begin to do it’s first movements – all of that can change your pregnancy from awful to awesome.

 

So, like I said, plain and simple. I believe it is safe and in my case it was necessary to do because it made me happier. If you are too nervous, if it makes you feel like you are putting your child in danger and if the moments in that chair are ones that you would rather forget, then remember that you can always say “no”. Trust your gut. Most likely, you know what’s best for your child better than anyone.