Are Ultrasounds Truely Safe?

I am very sorry to hear about the loss of your babies. I pray for good health for the baby you are carrying and wish you well during your pregnancy.

I think the increase in the diagnoses of the conditions you mention are due in part to better education and screening techniques. I imagine outside influences (environment, chemicals, etc) may play a role in some of these conditions, but I know from experience that sometimes abnormalities happen without warning and without any apparent cause. As a parent that can be hard to accept.

Although I haven't done any research on it, my gut feeling is that ultrasound is safe. It is a widely used diagnostic tool that provides useful information to doctors about our babies. I think if there was a signifcant risk involved with ultrasound, it would be on every news show and added to the "danger list for pregnant women" along with radiation exposure from x-rays, mercury from eating fish, listeria from eating cold cuts, chicken pox virus, etc. I think any risk from ultrasound would be minimal. Have you talked to your doctor about your concerns?

Hi A.,

Sorry to hear about your losses :( . I too have had 2 babies go to heaven.

Anyways, my view on your comment (question) is: I think the reason people today is being diagnosed with add,autism etc more so than in the past is not due to the fact that more people has it now but is due to the fact that the doctors today are more educated in these problems and are aware of what to look for. I don't feel it is due to ultasound. Although that does raise the question on how it could (if at all) effect the babies.

Good luck with the baby you are carrying now.

L.

awe very sorry for your lose.I agree with the last person.Doctors know alot more now then back then about add/autism.My 16 yr old is ADHD and i know from all the reading i have done the ultrasounds i had during did'nt do this to my son.I have 2 other children that dont have adhd.Best of luck to you..

I have worked in radiology for over 10 years and there has been a great deal of research on the possible effects of ultrasound on the unborn fetus. If the research in any way pointed to being detrimental for our unborn babies, then physicians would not recommend them in every pregnancy as they routinely do now. Many of the products that we are told to avoid in pregnancy are because of the unknown effects--if their were potential unknown effects of sonography, the medical community would not utilize this form of diagnostic imaging so often. As stated by previous posters, the piece of mind and potential diagnosis of pathology outweighs the risk of the exposure to ultrasound.

I am very sorry for your loss. Please know that in high-risk pregnancy such as twins, ultrasound can be very beneficial in determining the health and well-being of our unborn children. Good luck with your family and if you want to talk further or have other questions, please feel free to contact me.

(I have my own speculations on the rise of autism and ADD--I believe societal (increase in television/ video games) as well as environmental (increase in pesticides/ hormones/ pollutants in the air, ground and water) all contribute to the increase of such disorders. I also agree that doctors are in-tune to these diagnoses and that also plays a huge part in why so many cases are being treated and reported. Parents are also more aware of symptoms and seek treatment more than they did in the past.)

An ultrasound saved my child's life. On a routine ultrasound it was discovered that for no apparent reason, I stopped producing amniotic fluid. If it weren't for the ultrasound, I would have progressed through my pregnancy until he had no fluid left and would have died, and would never have known! I have been told by my OB that the benefits FAR outway the risks for ultrasounds and most of the time, parents try to find ANYTHING to blame for the problems that they have with their children's health. I can't blame them, of course, for wanting a reason for a miscarriage or a bad diagnosis but the reality is sometimes things just happen. We have SO much technology today and this accounts for a lot of the reasons for the increase in diagnoses of certain disfunctions. We now have a greater ability to figure things out. If ultracounds were that unsafe, then the doctors would collectively be doing less of them but they are actually doing more of them! The info found through ultrasound saves MANY lives, good luck!