Ultrasounds are an essential part of ensuring a healthy pregnancy, but can too much exposure to them cause more harm than good? This is the question that has been raised by the recent rise of non-medical keepsake ultrasounds.
This week on “Take Care,” Dr. Mary Norton, medical geneticist and nationally recognized expert in prenatal genetic diagnosis discusses the potential risks of unnecessary ultrasounds. Dr. Norton is also a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California San Francisco, and is the president of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
Ultrasounds are often synonymous with a first glimpse at a fetus, but their medical purpose goes beyond that. Considered a diagnostic tool, ultrasounds are used to check fetuses for abnormalities and ensure they are developing properly.
“It’s sort of an interesting, fun component of ultrasounds that we can see things like the fingers and toes and face, and almost always can tell if it’s a boy or a girl,” Norton said. “But those things are really secondary to the main purpose of the exam.”
For parents who want a bit more of that fun component, keepsake ultrasounds are an enticing option. But they could pose more of a risk than expected.
“Keepsake ultrasounds” are ultrasounds often performed by untrained individuals to create a photo or video (a keepsake, if you will) of the unborn child. Because ultrasound equipment is accessible to untrained personnel though online purchase and the sale of used equipment, keepsake ultrasounds are available at a number of odd locations—including shopping malls.
Unlike medical ultrasounds, which are monitored very closely to ensure the safety of the fetus, keepsake ultrasounds are usually not. Without proper monitoring, the level of exposure often goes unregulated.
“It‘s possible to expose the fetus to much higher levels of power by having the settings incorrectly set,” Norton said. “Doing this in a non-medical setting, in a mall, one really doesn’t know how much energy the fetus is being exposed to.”
According to Norton, studies on animals have shown that high levels of prolonged ultrasounds have the potential to cause problems. But that isn’t her only concern; she worries that the administrators of keepsake ultrasounds might plant false worries in parents’ heads.
“A patient will have a keepsake ultrasound, and as the person is doing it is looking around they’ll say ‘Oh gee, I’m kind of concerned that something is wrong with the baby’s heart, or foot, or face, or brain,’ and they’ll raise concerns.”
Once a parent’s suspicions are raised, Norton says, it can be almost impossible to alleviate their concerns. Parents often have a difficult time letting go of these worries, even after being reassured by medical doctors.
Norton’s advice for parents eager to catch a glimpse of their unborn child is that it’s best to avoid ultrasounds when they are not medically necessary. Though she maintains that medical ultrasounds are safe procedures, keepsake ultrasounds aren’t worth the risk.
“Although ultrasound is very safe, it is an intervention, there are sound waves that go through the fetus and we want to assure that it’s done as safely as possible,” Norton said. “We don’t know everything about things that may be discovered down the road, so we think it’s best to avoid unnecessary exposure.”