Ultrasounds - are they dangerous?

[Bobblehatwobble]

Hi,
So I’m a very anxious Mum to be after infertility, miscarriage and IVF. I have scans every two to three weeks at the moment because my anxiety/worry is through the roof and they calm me down enough until the next one. Alongside therapy, it’s a way for me to manage my stress levels which I know affect baby.

I have had some (unwanted, unsolicited and unprompted) advice from a well meaning family member that they’ve done research and found that this could harm my baby. I’ve looked myself and can’t find any definitive research that says this. I’m currently fighting every urge to tell them to fuck off.

Do they have a point? Have you heard this before?

Thanks

Not at all dangerous. Your family member is a dick. They are perfectly safe!

I would have the very strong urge aswell op
Ultrasounds are done every single day to millions of woman, for all sorts of reasons. I'm pretty sure if they were dangerous then they really wouldn't perform them the amount they do.
Concentrate on you and your little one. Just smile with all the 'very helpful' advice you will be given

They are completely safe! ShalomToYouJackie is correct. Do not worry!

I also had losses and then through my pregnancy I probably had about 10 scans between my 3 NHS ones and then the private ones I paid for to reassure me.

I did do research and theres no harm, although interestingly some research showed the babies who had more scans were more likely to be left handed if I remember correctly!

Millions of women have had ultrasound scans over the well over 30 years since they became available. I don't remember any reports of any of their babies being harmed as a result of having scans. Please try not to worry.

Luckily, ultrasounds are so common that there is heaps of research on them. If there was any danger to a baby, it would have come out by now!

@anxiouswaiting can you point to that research? That’s very strange...

No harm atall, ultrasound all you like and as much as you need to make you feel better! Family member needs to be better informed before they say things like that!

I know someone who claims so and refused all scans, but she also follows QAnon so... Luckily her baby was born safely and without complication, it could have been a very different story.

FFS. I hate it when people tell you BS that increases your anxiety for no reason.

OP, scans performed by trained professionals in a medical setting are absolutely fine. FWIW, I'm a recurrent miscarriage patient due to have my early scan next week. The clinic will also scan me around 9 wks and then booking scan. I really would not choose to do that with my history if it was risky.

Relax and try not to listen to idiots.

Sorry I don't remember the studies as my son is 2 now so it was some time ago and I used uni databases that I am not able to access since leaving. But if you use google scholar and search association between ultrasound and left handedness I think there is some stuff there.

Just to clarify I am not saying its proven, but I definitely remember reading it and being intrigued. Mentioned it at my antenatal group and the group leader said she knew of similar research so it's certainly been suggested.

Your relative is talking out of their ***

I had to do a review on this subject at university a few years ago. Literally the ONLY medical effect that has been demonstrated regarding the use of ultrasounds on babies is a tiny tiny tiny increase in the chance of baby boys being left rather than right handed. Almost all studies, even looking at thousands and thousands of babies couldn't show any effect.

The study that showed the lefthandedness was performed using data from a Scandinavian country (I can't remember exactly which one) that introduced ultrasounds for all pregnant women across the whole country at the same time, and also has/had compulsory conscription for all young men. The conscriptees enrolling in the armed forces had extremely thorough medical assessments performed. Analysing years worth of this medical data from before and after the introduction of ultrasound, literally hundreds of thousands of men, only showed the lefthandedness, and that was a tiny tiny tiny effect.

As previous posters have said, ultrasounds are used day in, day out across the entire globe and wouldn't be if there was a risk (or at least, you would have to consent to the scan each time and have the risks explained to you).

The only danger to babies from the use of ultrasound is when pregnant women use at home Doppler systems incorrectly and reassure themselves that baby is fine when actually they should be going to hospital to get checked over due to reduced movements. That is because it is very easy to detect the blood flow of the mother's artery rather than the babies heartbeat, rather than any harm from the ultrasound waves themselves. This may be what your relative is thinking?

I had about 16 NHS scans during my pregnancy for various necessary reasons, this was 16 years ago, my consultant mentioned the left handed thing then. No idea if it was ever proven/disproven, but my DD is right handed, although she is hypermobile, but that comes from me not the scans! Really I wouldn't worry.

Thank you so much for your messages, I doubt myself every time I get this shit from people so it’s nice to have some support that I’m not an idiot!!

Do I reply to her and tell her to please not give me advice? Or do I ignore it? I really want to set some boundaries but also don’t know if it’s worth it?

I think you'll probably get loads of advice from loads of sources, wether you ask for it or not. I politely go along with it and usually discard most of it, particularly the stuff surrounding labour as people are overly keen to share the horror stories (and I am scared of giving birth) but if you are anxious it's completely reasonable to tell people to piss off!

I had 16 scans throughout my pregnancy - as I had twins and required to have scans every 2 weeks. They were totally safe and both my babies are happy and healthy.

I would say to them that whilst you appreciate their views, you have information to the contrary and you will be doing whatever is necessary to have a happy and healthy pregnancy so would appreciate that they respect your decisions over your own medical care.

Thank you for the information about the left hand research.
OP I have twins so also had many scans. Try to avoid this person or ignore. Mine were also IVF and frankly miracle babies so I was also very anxious.
They are both left handed though... but then so is their dad, his dad and his sister.

Same as wishing, we had loads as had twins. Two fat little beasties arrived safely and perfecto.

They wouldn't massively increase the number of scans in high risk pregnancies of thee was a counter risk.

That's cheered me up @pinknsparkly. DS is right handed and it feels like a betrayal. Hopefully the twin boys with an their scans won't let me down #TeamLeftie

DC3 had weekly ultrasounds because of a high risk pregnancy. Please don't worry. Ultrasounds will give your medical staff opportunities to see any problems with your baby. If you were in a third world country you might not get this chance. Enjoy being one of the lucky ones.