Entertainment ultrasounds of babies in the womb warning by FDA

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 28 Mar 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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If you are pregnant, you can watch your baby appear to smile, yawn and even wave - all from inside your womb. Mother and father can seemingly see their unborn baby's personality traits.

These baby pictures have become increasingly popular, despite the safety warnings the FDA has issued.

When carried out by trained medical professionals who work within strict scientific guidelines, ultrasounds are safe and useful. They have been since the early sixties.

A new type of 'service' has emerged over the last couple of years. In the USA, unregulated establishments have sprouted up. They open up with names such as Fetal Fotos or Prenatal Peek.

They use $100,000 high-density ultrasound machines that produce incredibly clear pictures. Clients pay $200 per photo session. These machines are three-dimensional and you can see everything in incredible detail. Most doctors use two-dimensional scans.

About a decade ago the FDA closed many centres down. The FDA is looking at the whole thing again. In the USA it is illegal to administer ultrasound without a prescription. It is also illegal to promote ultrasound for non-medical use.

However, no medical board has taken any action against these centres.

According to some of the centres, they are operating legally. They say that they are owned by doctors. Fetal Fotos gets around this by offering a limited medical prior to the entertainment part of the session.

GE Medical Systems, a company which sells this equipment, said that it does not support the use of 4D equipment for non-medical purposes (it said this to Associated Press). However, its ads sell only the great pictures it produces. Its adverts show parents super excited when they see fantastic pictures of their babies in the womb.

Doctors disagree on whether this is OK or not.

The Society of Medical Diagnostic Sonography, the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology say that ultrasound should not be a photo opportunity, it should be used for medical purposes only. They wonder what would happen if an untrained person finds a malformation. An uninsured mother may depend on this service rather than her doctors.

The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine worries that these sessions are longer than the medical ones, a mother could be going to many sessions. This means that the baby is exposed to more energy from these machines.

Ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to produce diagnostic images of developing babies.

The difference between 3D and 4D ultrasound is that 4D ultrasound turns the 3D pictures into moving images.

The FDA said "Ultrasound is a form of energy, and even at low levels, laboratory studies have shown it can produce physical effects in tissue, such as jarring vibrations and a rise in temperature……..prenatal ultrasounds can't be considered completely innocuous."

Some studies have found problems exposure to these machines have on tissue and human development. However, they are very small studies and anecdotal.