3-D Ultrasound: Miraculous Pictures

With gestational diabetes, hydramnios (too much amniotic fluid), and preeclampsia complicating my pregnancy at the very end, the doctor wanted to ensure everything was in good shape - so he sent me to get a 3-D ultrasound. I used to think old-fashioned ultrasound was really neat - but not anymore. I've been spoiled.

Ordinary ultrasound works similarly to sonar. It uses sound waves at different frequencies to penetrate the human body, measuring the bounced-back waves to create an image of what's inside. More advanced ultrasound techniques can track blood flow patterns and other hard-to-detect processes in the body.

3-D ultrasound works the same way, but it uses sound waves generated from several different directions to get a dimensional, not flat, view of the baby. The technology then puts the image together in the same way a 3-D movie is recorded, except you don't have to wear those silly glasses to see it properly.

I've never seen anything like it. Unlike the grainy, shadowy images of regular ultrasound, 3-D ultrasound gives almost crisp images of the child, showing the viewer exactly where the baby is and how she's oriented.

"Look, she's going to have a lot of hair," the technician told me. Sure enough, I could see wispy hairs floating to the side of her head, waving in the amniotic fluid. Later, an image of her face wasn't quite as clear as the technician wanted it to be. "Hold on." She rotated the face-front image to a profile - and cut out the imagery in front of her face, just as you'd edit a flat picture in Photoshop. When the image was turned back to face front, most of the distortion was gone, and you could clearly see her face.

Potential Problems With 3-D Ultrasound

Though the images it takes are absolutely magnetic, there are reasons to limit the use of all ultrasound imaging of unborn babies. Few safety studies have been done on humans, though these scans have been done for at least thirty years and declared safe. But there are some potential problems.
First, remember that the sound waves directed at your baby are extremely high-frequency. Though the baby can't hear them and there is absolutely no evidence they damage her hearing, they do carry a great deal of energy. Prolonged sonograms of guinea pigs and other lab animals has shown marked heat increases in the areas being scanned. Secondary vibrations can create loud noise as well, irritating the fetus.

Only one effect, higher rates of left-handedness in boys, has been shown to result from the use of ultrasound. But that effect indicates a change in brain patterns. Like any medical test, parents who want to use 3-D ultrasound should use it as rarely as possible, and only for medical diagnosing. Get your pre-baby pictures when you check the baby's size!