Mamas, did you have sonogram/doptone use during your pregnancy?

Me too, Michelle. Every couple at my class last night was angry after seeing the video. When you see a doctor say 'I don't tell my patients about the risks because it would cause them to panic'... argh. This is exactly why I don't blindly put faith in doctors and pharmaseutical companies... because they lie.

The same with me. When I was pregnant with my daughter,I had so many ultrasounds done. My husband was with me for every one, that he can now read an ultrasound like a tech. With my third one, I have had 3 so far,I am going for a level 2 next month. I think if ultrasounds were that harmful the FDA would not have approved them.

The thing is, ultrasounds are NEW. They've only been used for around 30 years. 50 years ago, docs didn't think there was anything wrong with giving a pregnant woman an ex-ray. Now, they know better. the fact is, they need more time to determine long-term effects of ultrasound, so NO ONE can say they are 'safe', because they don't know if they are or not.

But they keep doing them routinely, because ultrasounds are a huge money-maker. I just don't like the idea of anybody using MY body as a guinea pig. OR my babies.

CRiley, I just found an article entitled 'FDA: Ultrasound a tool, not a toy' in which "FDA officials say that ultrasound can generate heat in fetal tissue, create microscopic bubbles and cause vibrations, all of which might affect fetal development". The article also states that the FDA is threatening doctors with fines, confiscation of ultrasound equiptment and possible shutdown if they don't stop 'exposing fetuses to unnecessary risk' ... meaning performing 'routine' ultrasounds for no medical, diagnostic purpose.

I'm not disputing the validity of ultrasound as a diagnostic tool, I'm just saying I had no idea the FDA and everyone else apparantly knows there are risks and we women are having sonagrams and being told otherwise. 'it's completely safe' is a fallacy, as I am quickly learning.

I was too... and I was angry at myself for not researching it beforehand. I mean, it's MY job to protect my baby. I was a little angry at my midwife, too, because I had no idea how powerful the doppler was and I feel uninformed about my care. My birth class instructor said that the reason the baby always moves away from the doppler is because it hurts them!

I do think they can be good tools for diagnosis, but the reality is not much can be done in most cases even if they do find something wrong. My MW uses the doppler just to hear the heartbeat once a week. I'm going to refuse it after seeing this video.

I think that perhaps this is just something that very rarely happens. I do think that ultrasounds are VERY necessary though. Especially if you've had complicated pregnancies before. They're a necessary way to determine if the baby is head down or if it will be a breach birth, not to mention a way to monitor the developement of the baby, or in some cases, multiple babies. I had several when I was pregnant (and several after to check the position of my IUD) and my son turned out just fine.

The thing the video said is that the damage that is done is on a very small level, so of course everyone who has one has healthy babies. But actually seeing normal cell activity before sonogram, and then after sonogram was the scary part. After cells are exposed to sonogram, they look scrambled and are disorganized... the ultrasound waves clearly cause cellular abnormalities and CAN cause cell mutations, as in cancer. I don't think it's a scare, as it was released to let parents know that there are indeed risks, and that the medical community doesn't know exactly what long-term affects are. But they know it changes normal cell activity, and that the changes can be seen in generations to come. I'm just upset that everyone tells you how safe it is, when that's not a fact... and women are getting way too many ultrasounds for non-medical reasons. I for one haven't had any complications or problems at all, and I've been exposing my baby to ultrasound for months! I don't claim to know everything about this, but I plan on doing my research...

This is from WebMD, found on CNN Interactive:

London-- 'Ultrasound scans, routinely used to look at internal organs and to moniter the growth of a developing fetus, can stop cells from dividing normally, Irish scientists said Wednesday' .... 'during the study, the rate of cell division in mice that were given an 8 megahertz scan lasting 15 minutes was 22 percent lower than normal, and the rate of cell death doubled. Routine hospital scans use frequencies between 3 and 10 megahertz and can last up to 60 minutes. Dr. Brennan said the sound waves of the scans could be damaging the DNA in cells, which could delay cell division and repair, or it might be switching on p53, a tumor suppressor gene that controls cell death. Cancer occurs when damaged cells multiply uncontrollably and form tumors. Mutations in p53 are the commonest gene abnormalities seen in human cancers.'

I would ask you to read my above recent post on what the FDA says about non-medical sonograms. Having a sonogram 'just to determine the sex of the baby' could get your doctor shut down. I appreciate your opinion, however, the more research I've done today, the more I realized I knew NOTHING about this. And I think most women are sorely undereducated about what exactly they're exposing their babies to. I'm over my freak-out, as there is nothing I can do about the past, but I surely won't expose any future children to ultrasound waves.