Screenings are needed, of course. However, everything is good in moderation.
I lost my baby at 8 weeks. No bleeding. No other symptoms. The kid just stopped developing. This happens all the time, but another fact is more alarming: the frozen fetus was in me for another six weeks before I got to the scheduled ultrasound, when it became clear that the pregnancy had stopped.
Probably, there is no need to tell my condition in the next pregnancy. I was ready to run ultrasound every week. Only in the first trimester I had it done four times: once, when I just found out about pregnancy, twice in the hospital, where I went to stay at the slightest pulling pain, once again – to calm me down. In general, until the first perturbations, I lived from research to research.
“I practically stopped sleeping,” complains a friend who has not been able to get pregnant for many years. – All the time it seems that something is wrong. I will calm down only if I see with my own eyes: the baby is fine.
I understand her perfectly. Probably, from a human point of view, doctors also understand. But from a professional, this position is categorically not supported. Moreover, they say: the era of “ultrasound mania” has come, in which unscrupulous commercial clinics make a lot of money.
Note that three scheduled ultrasound screenings – one for each trimester – are done only in Russia. British and American doctors are guided by rules that prescribe only two mandatory diagnostics: at week 12, when chromosomal abnormalities are detected, and at week 20, when malformations are examined. But this is not enough for suspicious mothers. Either the pregnant brain works like this, or many have gone through a situation similar to mine. In general, it is a fact – a study conducted in England showed that every third mother is ready to pay for additional private ultrasounds.
The survey was conducted by ChannelMum.com. Of the two thousand women he interviewed in a position, one in three was ready to pay for an additional ultrasound scan out of concern for their baby. Another third admitted that their anxiety was not based on any medical indication. Moreover, every fifth is ready to spend on two additional studies, 18 percent – on three or more. And some even admitted that they ran for scanning 9-10 times per pregnancy – every month!
Well, there is money and let them be examined that they have become attached to them – many might be surprised. But experts don’t think so. They adhere to the position that everything is good in moderation.
– Excessive intensity of radio waves can be dangerous to the fetus, – quotes the opinion of experts DailyMail. – And obstetricians should definitely warn expectant mothers about this.
But why warn you if you can make good money out of it? An ultrasound package in private British clinics costs from 35 to 1000 pounds. In Russia – from 2500 to 5000 rubles. And if you also buy a discount coupon on a site like Groupon … while some private clinics do research longer than the recommended thirty minutes, while others use unregistered medical equipment that is not able to make an accurate diagnosis and may miss obvious problems.
“The current recommendations for ultrasound diagnostics are based on many years of research and take into account all the benefits and risks,” says Mervi Jokinen, head of professional practice at the Royal College of Midwives in the UK. – Any further screenings should be clinically indicated, taking into account the needs of the woman and her developing child.