Ultrasounds in High Risk Pregnancy

[Kate126]

I am a 'High Risk' Pregnancy as have Anti Phospholipid Syndrome (diagnosed after 2 miscarriages), and a connective tissue disorder (mild). I am on LMWH, Aspirin, Hydroxychlorquine. I'm 37, and haven't had any children. I've been told i will need extra growth scans (28,32 and 36 weeks) as well as weekly CTG montioring from 28 weeks (whcih will involve 20 mins a pop of USS Doppler).

I have done a fair bit of reading on the safety of utrasound scanning and feel very uncomfortable with having this amount of scanning done. There seems to be increasing amounts of research which casts siginificant doubt on the safety of scanning (partiuclary with the advent of scanners which are higher powered (up to x8) than those originally used in the 80's/90's. THe concern really is the impact that it may have on the fetal brain.

I'm a medical doctor, and well aware of the imprtant role that scanning etc has, however i cannot help but feel uncomfortable with this degree of exposure. I am also not convinced that it would ultimately lead to a change in the outcome (knowing that the vast majority of babies are better in than out, esp before 32/34 weeks).

I wondered what folks experience was of being 'high risk' and getting this amount of mointoring, and whetehr anyone actually declined some scans/CTG's that were for purely monitoring purposes.

Any thoughts/experiences appreciated!

I am/was high risk and as far as I was aware US is sound waves so I'm unsure about how much damage could be done by monitoring. Now I am aware it is silly to listen daily (Tom cruise style) but more interested to understand why the NHS would give these scans/dopplers to HRP if damage was being done?

By all means as a medical doctor you know you can refuse tests etc, and I know nothing about your condition but wish you well! 😊

I’m classed as a high risk pregnancy because it’s twins. So far I have had a scan at 7, 12, 16, 20, 24 weeks and yet to have them at 28, 32, 36, 38 weeks if we get that far.
I have also had numerous listen ins on monitors or Doppler (sometimes my anxiety etc) but when I was admitted to hospital they liked to listen in twice a day. I’m sure they wouldn’t be doing it if it hadn’t been shown as safe in pregnancy.
I was told it was all safe and they need the growth scans to make sure both twins are growing correctly (touch wood up to now they are I have my next one a week today). If they didn’t think it was needed they wouldn’t do it that’s the way I look at it. Hope this helps?!

Hi, I had a trans v scan every fortnight from 6-20 weeks, then a abdo scan every 2 weeks 20-32 weeks then a weekly scan till 40 as I had what is euphemistically referred to as a 'poor obstetric history'.

This was in my last pg in 2015 so I think it is probably still roughly the same equip in use (in a large london teaching hospital),

At the time I did think about it and had a good chat with a couple of consultants about it. Their honest opinion was that, they weren't really sure. ,As of 2015, there were only two serious bits of research that showed that (1) more than 6 scans increased the likelihood of the baby being left handed. and (2) more than 6 scans increased the likelihood of a healthy baby being born.

There was lots of discussion about these facts but no conclusions.

To influence left handedness suggested to me that it must be doing something in the babies brain, God knows what, but follow up research hadn't found any others..

To influence positive outcome was thought at the time to be due to the Hawthorne effect, not really the best description as obviously only the parent knows they are being observed, not the baby, whereas in the orignial experiement the subjects deliberately changed their behaviour because they knew they were being observed. But the gist of it was that perhaps because you were in the hospital more to be monitored you were reassured by the visits so less stressed which had a beneficial effect, or perhaps more monitoring led to things being picked up which had a beneficial effect etc. So in other words it was probably not the scans in themselves.

There were a fair few other crappy bits of science flapping around on the internet that got short shrift from my consultants at the time.

A HR pregnancy is a 9 month stress survival course....

I’ve had 12 scans in my 28 weeks of pregnancy so far due to multiple complications. I’m not worried at all, I think the stress of not having them would cause more problems.

I had 8 scans in my first pregnancy and had a healthy boy who is now 5.
I had 4 scans in my 2nd and weekly ctgs, again had a healthy boy who is now 2.

I was offered extra scans for growth, because I’ve had two big babies - but the pregnancies, labours and birth were healthy and straight forward and I don’t have an issue delivering big babies so I don’t see why they do, not to mention the growth scans are notoriously wrong, so I declined them all... and an extra scan at 32 weeks for my low lying placenta, which of course I have to have done for the sake of baby otherwise I won’t know if it’s safe to deliver them or have to have a section

As for exposure, i doubt it matters. It’s for such a short time it’s not constantly on them. My youngest had his normal scans plus 3 extra ones (4D for funsies) and he’s ridiculously smart, so unless the effect it has is to make you smarter... I doubt it

The alternative is guess work when it comes to the gestational health and growth of your baby. It's a measured risk and one I personally feel is absolutely reasonable