Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Jul
3
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“There Are No Risks To Ultrasounds.”
“There are no risks to ultrasounds.” -OB to a mother who questioned the benefits and risks of a growth ultrasound.
There are 49 comments to this post.
I always wonder whatever happened to “informed consent.” Apparently in many cases of OB care, it goes right out the window. I asked my midwife this very same question early in my pregnancy. She told me that the risks are probably low, but that she has read studies that link the possibility of hearing loss in infants to repeated exposure to ultrasound. I found this very interesting as I had never heard this before! Anyway — my husband and I decided not to have an ultrasound unless something along the way during the pregnancy was throwing red flags or just seemed “off” that needed more investigation. I totally don’t regret my decision, but anytime people find out I haven’t had one at just shy of 29 weeks pregnant, you’d think I’d told them I had plans to initiate my baby into a cult or something.
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This was mine. I was 32 weeks with my second baby, and in the hospital for a suspected kidney infection (turned out to just be a kidney stone thankfully). The on call OB in the maternity ward was truly monstrous; this wasn’t the worst thing he said to me by far. He told me I was obese (ummmm no, but whatever buddy) and as a result I would have GD and Pre-e; my child was sure to suffer from IUGR….thus his demand for a growth U/S. I told him I didn’t think it was necessary in my case, that I was doing well and my baby was ok, that I felt u/s were too risky. Along with his reply that there WERE no risks (he laughed and sneered that to me btw), he informed me that my VBAC attempt at home would end with both of us dead. I burst into tears immediately, and just couldn’t believe he could be that callous to a pregnant woman under so much pain and stress. My husband eventually had to take him aside and tell him he was not allowed to speak to me anymore.
Oh, and upon meeting me when I checked in, he took a short health history; one question was “do you have any STDs besides your kids?” Hardy har har Doc.
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Jen Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 5:53 am (Quote)
Um… wow. How did you keep from beating the s**t out of him? That’s crazy ridiculous. So sorry you had to deal with that!
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Jane Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 6:15 am (Quote)
What a charming individual. :-b
Lauren, if you think about this person ever again, just remember the worst possible thing that could happen to him is to be the person who he is. Imagine what it must be like to live inside that kind of a mind. 
I’m sorry you had to deal with this person. Good for your husband for sticking up for you!
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Lauretta Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 6:43 am (Quote)
Lauren- HO-LEE CRAP!!!I cannot believe what an idiot that guy was to you!! I would have seriously filed a complaint with the hospital or something over the nasty comments he made to you. That was absolutely disgusting and uncalled for. Sheesh!
Jane- I love what you said about the worst possible thing to happen to him is being who he is lol. Love it.
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 12:17 pm (Quote)
Someone who sees babies as a form of STD has no business catching them. (Although he might catch a real STD at some point. Anything’s possible.) The overall bullying is something of a negative, too.
What a complete JERK.
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Lauren Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 4:51 pm (Quote)
Thanks guys. I did file a complaint, but it was a military hospital….I doubt anything will happen. *sigh*
I had my daughter this past October; it began as a planned home UBAC and ended with me VBACing in the hospital (non emergent transfer). Thankfully this OB was not on call; instead I ended up with the one who had trained with midwives and was a complete angel. 
She listened to me, respected my choices, and was incredibly encouraging. I felt so healed by the experience.
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Cmat had this to say,
Jul 3, 2010 @ 7:04 am (Quote)
Lauren- That man is truly a troll. The way he acted towards you made my jaw drop! I’m glad your husband had the thought to take him aside and kick him out. Sorry if your post already said this, but have you had your baby yet? How are you both?
Jane- Absolutely right. He has the ultimate punishment. You can’t escape yourself!
Stacy- I also had someone tell me that there were no risks for epidurals. The difference was that this person was a pediatric anesthesiologist that was supposed to be the head anesthetist for my son’s hypospadia surgery. His exact words were “One of our other options for anesthesia is an epidural like the one you had for your son’s birth.” I stopped him and told him I didn’t have one and I flat out told them that heads would roll if I found out they gave my year old son an epidural. After that he made a point to ONLY face my husband and talk to him as though I wasn’t allowed to make comments. My husband told him “You need to talk to her about it, not me. I don’t want him to have an epidural either.” because he knew it pissed me off.
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Ugh, sounds like a monster of an OB. Sorry, Lauren.
I know that they aren’t conclusively proven to be safe, but do any of you ladies have links to info on potential risks? I’ve had a hard time finding anything that doesn’t basically say “assumed safe til proven otherwise”.
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Jane Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 5:56 pm (Quote)
I’ve seen references to a study in (I believe) Sweden where they discovered the rate of spontaneous left-handedness was significantly greater among individuals who’d been scanned by ultrasound in utero.
Left-handedness occurs naturally (ie, genetically) in a certain percentage of the population, and that’s normal and healthy. But spontaneous lefthandedness (ie, the kid is genetically a righty, the parents are righties) indicates that there may have been damage to the corpus callosum, the part of the brain which regulates communication between the brain hemispheres. A significant increase in spontaneous left-handeness among individuals who had been scanned with multiple ultrasounds indicates that there may be subtle changes going on in the fetal brain.
I do know that multiple studies of ultrasounds have shown no benefit to the mothers or the babies. THat is to say, the only reduction in fetal mortality was shifting some babies who would have died at birth (due to birth defects) to the early termination category, but overall the babies who were diagnosed at birth with conditions such as Down Syndrome and spina bifida received appropriate treatment only about seven hours later on average than the ones diagnosed in utero, and the delay in treatment didn’t show any adverse outcomes for the babies involved.
What the ultrasounds DID change, however, were the number of women induced early, the number of women having c-sections, and the number of women who suffered from worry due to diagnoses and misdiagnoses.
If that holds true, then who benefits from all these ultrasounds?
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 2:41 pm (Quote)
All our children are either left-hand dominant, or ambidextrous like my husband. I’m the only rightie in the household.
Bringing this up because there is a higher percentage of lefthandedness among autistic people.
I don’t think ultrasounds cause autism. (For one thing, neither my mother nor my mother-in-law ever got one.) But the corpus callosum link – that might be useful. Somehow.
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Jane Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 2:44 pm (Quote)
I’m ambie. My autistic son is lefty, and he’s the only lefty in the family.
He also had no ultrasound during pregnancy except the doppler. So whatever “happened” to him (assuming it wasn’t genetic) probably wasn’t an ultrasound.
It’s one study. It warrants further studies.
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 2:58 pm (Quote)
I am DEFINITELY donating my brain to science when I die. I suspect my husband will do the same. No idea what our children will decide after they reach the age of majority, but if (heaven forbid) any of them die before they’re legal adults, their brains are getting donated, too. I think autism research needs more brains, especially from the higher functioning autists – most research has of necessity focused on the people with severe disability, and not much on people like us who are mildly disabled and can arguably call our disability a “difference,” like being Macs when the rest of the world runs on Windows Vista.
We’re off on a tangent, but this was one of the more fruitful ones, I gotta say…
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Jane Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 6:02 pm (Quote)
Scanning some of my old bookmarks:
Overview:
http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/ultrasound.asp
No proven benefits to women:
http://apps.who.int/rhl/pregnancy_childbirth/fetal_disorders/prenatal_diagnosis/jbcom/en/
Oh, and this has nothing to do with ultrasound, but it’s my favorite graph ever and it explains a lot of what we read about on this site:
http://www.ahrq.gov/data/hcup/charts/5admiss.htm
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Catherine Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 11:01 am (Quote)
Thanks for the link to the first article! There was very little information available in the early 1980s, but after my first u/s in late 1980 caused my daughter to go into violently convulsive spasms in utero, I got very suspicious. I must have seen a report of one of the studies you mention, because it seems quite familiar: “Research by Lieberskind revealed “the persistence of abnormal behaviour . . . in cells exposed to a single dose diagnostic ultrasound ten generations after insonation.” She concluded, “If germ cells were . . . involved, the effects might not become apparent until the next generation” (Lieberskind, 1979).” In 1984, when an OB tried to approach me with a doptone to determine whether a pregnancy was still viable, I jumped off the other side of the exam table and refused on the grounds that if the baby was still living I didn’t want to subject it to additional stress and if not, I didn’t want to know any sooner than I had to! It must have looked very funny, doctor with doptone in hand and patient in backless gown, circling the table like a couple of gladiators. I won. (And baby was fine.)
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Katherine Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 12:19 pm (Quote)
Some articles about the possible dangers of U/S
http://www.ehow.com/about_5767461_dangers-fetal-doppler_.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/028853_ultrasound_fetus.html
http://www.mothering.com/pregnancy-birth/what-you-should-know-about-ultrasound
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While I know there are situations where the benefit to use of ultrasound outweighs any risk, stating that there are *no* risks at all is dishonest.
I saw a study where they found that ultrasound produces cavitation (bubbles) in the amniotic fluid. Amniotic fluid exposed to ultrasound showed changes as compared with fluid not exposed to any ultrasound. The ultrasound can also vibrate the baby’s tissues, and apparently it’s possible they experience it has high pitched noise. We don’t really know for sure.
And that’s the thing that bugs me, we don’t really know for sure, but yet some offices act like it is *required* for low-risk healthy pregnant women to have one at every single visit. Places that do ultrasounds for “recreational purposes” reinforce this assumption that there are no risks at all.
I know that:
Every single one of my children fought and kicked against the doppler during prenatal appointments and actively tried to get away from it, as if it caused them discomfort. During the pregnancies I did have a 20-week growth scan, they didn’t seem to enjoy that either.
With my youngest, I used a fetoscope to listen to her heartbeat multiple times a day, and my child never tried to get away from it, or showed any kind of change in activity level while I was using it.
Even without the articles I read detailing unknowns and possible concerns, just knowing it seemed to cause them discomfort was enough for me to want to avoid it unless there was a very clear medical reason (and measuring “ahead for dates” wasn’t a concern that bothered me, since it happened prior to 20 weeks during every pregnancy).
Again, I know there are medical reasons to use U/S, and use it frequently. I know some women ARE comfortable with the risk levels, and want to see the U/S images. This is not something I pass judgment on because that has been me. My sole objection is to dishonest care providers stating there are NO risks rather than being honest and saying they haven’t studied the risks, and that it is presumed safe.
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Amelia Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 9:42 am (Quote)
Kat, my daughter also reacted badly to the Doppler. She would try to kick it! We did wind up having one medically necessary ultrasound (I was bleeding at 32 weeks), but without a good reason, I wouldn’t have had any.
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 10:43 am (Quote)
All our children squirmed away from the Doppler during heartbeat checks. This time around, when it happened, I told my midwife that it’s an early indication of sensory hypersensitivities (we’re all autistic in our family, remember? Hypersensitive in the extreme.) She uses a fetoscope on my fundus now.
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Midwifery today had an article about this in 1999…
http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/ultrasound.asp
I don’t know if there is more recent info out there or not.. Someone with full scientific/medical journal access should research it..
“No risks” eh? Kind of like some docs like to claim there are no risks to epidurals, c-sections (yes I’ve seen this claimed), etc.? And they used to claim X-rays, many medications, etc. were harmless til it was proven much the opposite, etc. ?
Risks can outweigh benefit, sure.. but routine, very regular or daily/weekly use of these (especially the more powerful ones and the constant powerful at-home doppler usage) machines cannot be taken so darn lightly. It is wholly unscientific and risky.
Keep in mind doppler also uses the same ultrasonic waves but provides a lot heavier exposure and is also used more frequently..
I’m not trying to start any wars.. I blame the system for propagating the misguided “routine use of technology is always better/safer” mindset.
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch had this to say,
Jul 3, 2010 @ 10:40 am (Quote)
On the surface, this comment doesn’t seem as egregious as most quoted here.
However, it is potentially inaccurate – if ultrasound were totally risk-free, why would we be cautioned to only get them when it’s a matter of medical urgency (to diagnose malformation of the spine or chambers of the heart, for instance, or at least rule such malformations out when the mother has been taking anticonvulsants or other drugs known to cause severe problems in foetal development)?
If ultrasound were 100% risk free, we’d be told to get as many of them as we liked, like photo keepsakes from those $1 photo booths you find in the malls. Instead, we’re warned away from mall ultrasound studios. This may be partly protection of profits to the hospitals and obstetric practices, rather than protection of unborn babies, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Also, the way the comment is phrased sounds a lot like the sort of patronizing “be reasonable, do it my way and stop asking questions – I know what is best” mentality we encounter so often when dealing with medical specialists who have large egos and don’t like being challenged.
If a mother isn’t interested in getting an ultrasound, she shouldn’t be pushed into getting one.
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For me one of the risks of ultrasound is the fear that can come from fear mongering doctors. “Oh your baby looks like it’ll 10 pountds!” “Your baby looks like it’s too small.” “Your fluid levels are too low.” Etc. I’d rather not subject myself to those sorts of comments.
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Birth Sense had this to say,
Jul 3, 2010 @ 12:57 pm (Quote)
As a midwife, I agree with Heather–routine ultrasound promotes fear about every thing that MIGHT be wrong but seldom actually is. Ultrasound has its place but still has not been recommended for routine use, but rather for use where specific prenatal findings indicate the need for it. I wrote further on this topic at http://www.themidwifenextdoor.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=410
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It makes me wonder if doctors go into obstetrics simply because they know they can be demeaning and abusive to their patients. If you were there for a colonoscopy and asked about the risks, I’m sure you wouldn’t have been laughed at and brushed off. Shame on your OB!
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Claire Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 11:45 pm (Quote)
I have to say that I do wonder at times if men who go into obstetrics in order to be demeaning and abusive to their patients are unconsciously acting out some kind of revenge against mothers for having been circumcised . . .
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Jane Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 6:02 am (Quote)
We’ve seen female obstetricians who are just as obnoxious. I think the obstetric climate itself creates disdain for the patients. The doctors are routinely dealing with women who are curious, scared, changing, hormonal, delighted, sad, have lots of questions, are all coming from different perspectives, and each want more attention than seven minutes per month.
After a while of answering all the same questions, these highly-trained surgeons must feel they’re being wasted in the offices when what they need to be doing–what they’re trained to do–is save lives in the maternity ward. The rest of it is all preliminary to them, and they’re done with it.
Frankly, I think anyone who deals with a dozen pregnant women every day must suffer some degree of emotional whiplash.
And of course, all this leads us back to my mantra, which is “Burnout, burnout, burnout.” They’ve answered that question before and don’t want to revisit it — it doesn’t matter that they didn’t answer it to YOU. They answered it and are ready to move on.
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Claire Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 12:08 pm (Quote)
Which is why women shouldn’t be seeing obstetricians for uncomplicated pregnancies! They should be in the care of family physicians or midwives until/unless something emerges that requires an obstetrician’s specific training and skills. And this is the model that is used in most countries where maternal and infant mortality rates are considerably lower than those of the U.S.
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The WellRounded Mama had this to say,
Jul 3, 2010 @ 6:42 pm (Quote)
I have a review of the safety and utility of ultrasound on my website. It doesn’t have the VERY latest research on it (it was written in 2003) but it does cover the topic pretty well and gives lots of links to additional readings:
http://www.plus-size-pregnancy.org/Prenatal%20Testing/prenataltest-ultrasoundsafety.htm#Safety Issues
Basically, ultrasound has not been proven to be harmful, nor has it proven conclusively to be safe either. We need more research, and that’s not easy to do with the complexity of the subject.
The research is pretty clear that one ultrasound in pregnancy is very unlikely to cause significant, noticeable damage but it cannot rule out more subtle problems. Some studies have reported problems but they had so many confounding factors (or their results were not able to be replicated later) that you simply cannot make any real conclusions.
If there is any direct harm from traditional ultrasound use, it’s probably fairly minimal, given limited exposure and skilled techs. A bigger question is how risky multiple repeated exposures are, the impact of new technology on risks, and whether vaginal ultrasounds in early pregnancy carry more risk.
The doctor is correct that no risks have been *conclusively proven* from ultrasounds. But neither has it been proven *conclusively safe* either. With minimal use the risks are probably small, but I still have concerns about 1st trimester use, lots of repeat ultrasounds, and the implications of new technology.
And of course, ultrasounds are often used to convince women into interventions (induction or cesarean for macrosomia, low fluid, etc.). The ultrasound itself may or may not carry a lot of risk but the way it is USED may carry more risks.
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 2:37 pm (Quote)
I’ve heard that in Germany and other parts of Europe, it’s common practice for a pregnant woman to get an ultrasound (not a Doppler heartbeat, a full ultrasound!) at each and every prenatal visit.
I’ve also been told that in American OB/GYN offices that boast their own ultrasound machines, this is not unheard of, either.
A wee bit much, I think…
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Sheva had this to say,
Jul 4, 2010 @ 5:48 am (Quote)
So now one of the questions we have to ask when interviewing a potential doc is, were you circumcised? I could see it now…
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Guggie Daly Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 3:37 pm (Quote)
Wow, that brings a lot of perspective into the ongoing abuses in the obstetrical arena.
I also try to get pregnant mamas to think about their obstetrician and what he has done. As far as I know, all the major medical schools in America require medical students to observe and perform infant circumcisions.
There is also a lot of lobbying to make abortion-education mandatory for medical students. Right now, only about 30% of graduating students were required to observe and/or perform abortions.
So to mamas who are against abortion or circumcision…what do you think about hiring that OB to touch your vagina and your newborn baby…?? How much can you trust that he is excellent at compartmentalizing? Can he needlessly cut one person’s genitals but not yours? Kill one baby but not yours?
Deep questions that I wish more mamas would ask themselves when choosing providers.
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 3:06 pm (Quote)
I’m for keeping abortion legal, safe, and accessible, but against abortion itself, because I don’t see limiting access as either effective or mother-friendly (I regularly piss off pro-choice AND pro-life advocates on a regular basis, which I suppose must count for something, though I’m not sure what) and I am VIOLENTLY anti-circ.
I don’t trust male OBs. On occasion I have had to grit my teeth and endure them, because that was who was available – when I donated my eggs, most of the OBs at the fertility clinic were male, and when my first birth turned into a c-section, the resident (or intern, not sure which) who did the surgery was male, as was the anaesthesiologist. Not much I could do about that. They were competent, so I shut myself off. I am good at compartmentalizing when the situation demands it.
My hospital VBAC was somewhat worse. I had transferred from the CNM I liked to a local obstetrician simply because my husband and I lost our car, and I had to have a care provider within walking distance. Eventually I found a homebirth midwife who worked a lot with Amish people, and I came to see the doctor as a provider of “shadow care,” but in retrospect, I wish I’d dropped him when I found the midwife rather than keeping him as a backup. I wound up in premature labour, being met in the maternity ward by the doctor I hated, and in between that, the way he yelled at me and treated me, and the way the nurses were holding my legs apart and holding me down “for my own good,” I felt like I was being raped. It was pretty horrible. Either because I have all the natural maternal instinct of your average Lego block (I’m autistic) or because my need to dissociate had severed me from my emotions until such time as it was safe to have them back (long after I got home), I did not even cry when they swept my baby away from me and wouldn’t even let me touch her or hold her before carting her off to an incubator, an ambulance, a NICU in another hospital that I failed to ask to be transferred to with her. I was dead inside. I have to live with that. At any rate, having a strange male I detested stand in front of my genitals and catch my baby girl was NOT an experience I would willingly repeat. I could not trust that he would leave me alone – I pushed with all my might to get her out FAST because I was afraid he’d give me an episiotomy, he’d already ruptured my membranes without asking my permission – and if I’d given birth to a boy, oh, I have no idea what would have happened. As it was I am pretty sure they gave my newborn daughter a septic workup in the NICU just because it was an “emergency” birth and procedures, you know. I’m afraid to ask for her records.
Anyway, my third birth went much better – perfectly, from my standpoint. I had a direct entry midwife who never once gave me a vaginal exam or cervical check. And she was female. (I know that doesn’t mean everything, but I personally have a horror of male obstetricians and gynecologists. I’ve had male GPs before, and they were okay, but I never used them for anything involving my plumbing.) My midwife arrived in time for the placenta, because I had such a fast labour that she had to beat the clock to get to my house, and even that to me felt good – I really liked being left alone. I hate getting lots of attention when I’m sick, in pain, or helpless. It makes me feel too vulnerable. So going accidentally “freebirth” was very nice for me. She did check me out afterward. Which was fine; she was in my circle of trust by then.
I guess what it boils down to is that I’ll hire somebody tentatively, and withhold my trust until we have a good working relationship established; and if anything causes me to question that trust at some point during the pregnancy, I fire my care provider and find another. I’ve learned that the hard way.
Pediatricians are something of a problem. It’s hard finding one who has openings, who is not an hour or more away, who shares my philosophy of parenting and medicine (I’m not anti-modern-medicine, but I prefer a less-is-more approach) and who has experience with autistic children. To be honest, we mostly haven’t been going to one regularly. “Well child” appointments seem to be about measuring height and weight (we can do that at home), asking questions about developmental milestones (we definitely do that at home!), and getting caught up on shots (which we mostly want to avoid until the girls are older, because we both have histories of adverse reactions and we would prefer to avoid all but the most absolutely necessary vaccines anyway. Tetanus, yes; chicken pox, meh, maybe if they’re hitting puberty and have never had it.) When one of us is sick we go to an urgent care clinic. It’s cheaper, there’s less of a wait, and they take good care of us.
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Sheva had this to say,
Jul 4, 2010 @ 5:55 am (Quote)
Nothing is without risk. It could be dangerous to cross he street.
Doc, we’re not asking you if you would opt to take the risks, we’re asking what they are so we could make our own decision. Because it’s our decision to make. Why is that so dificult for so many docs to accept/understand/respect???
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Elizabeth Reply:
July 6th, 2010 at 10:13 am (Quote)
I totally agree. There *are* risks to ultrasound. What exactly these risks are and how ‘risky’ are they… we aren’t completely sure. It won’t stop me from going in for my ultrasound today though (mid-pregnancy anatomy scan) and it didn’t stop me from getting a dating ultrasound at 10 weeks because of my long cycles. Those are the reasons *I* was willing to take the risk of getting an ultrasound. Most women don’t need a dating ultrasound and many will also turn down the anatomy scan and that’s cool too.
I just cry a little inside whenever I see a friend having 3+ ultrasounds in the first trimester alone (especially someone getting one before 8 weeks without signs of complications)! Ultrasound is not meant to be used to take a peek whenever you gosh darned feel like it.
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Translation: We’ve never conclusively proven they’re safe, but since we don’t know how to practice obstetrics without them and we desperately want them to be safe, we’ll also ignore the studies that show differences in babies exposed to ultrasound versus babies not exposed to ultrasound.
(BTW, please don’t let this become a flame war. I’ve seen it happen on too many parenting forums because many of us HAVE been told ultrasounds are risk-free and many doctors say the same thing. And many of us have read research indicating it may not be totally risk free and needs more studies, and for that reason have abstained from having an ultrasound at every visit. THat doesn’t make us better or worse parents, whatever we decided. It means we all have different comfort levels. That’s all.)
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Rachel Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 5:03 am Rachel(Quote)
Agreed, Jane. I gave in and had a very early ultrasound with my second pregnancy. The rule was, without that ultrasound, I wouldn’t have one until 20 weeks, but if I had it, I had to come back in 14 days for a followup ultrasound. Wouldn’t you know, at my followup ultrasound, my baby was dead.
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Jane Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 5:25 am Jane(Quote)
I’m so sorry.
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Lauren Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 5:50 am Lauren(Quote)
Good points Jane, as always!
Oh Rachel, I’m so sorry!
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 10:33 am Sarah Dorrance-Minch(Quote)
How awful. I’m so sorry.
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Stacy Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 5:57 am Stacy(Quote)
Agreed that it shouldn’t become a war. It’s not about whether or not ultrasound is safe, it’s about the blatant lie the OB told the patient when is not conclusively proven to be safe. It’s similar to my OB telling me there are no longer any risks with epidurals. :rolleyes:
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Jane Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 6:13 am Jane(Quote)
We can’t be informed decision-makers if they either deny us the information or deny any actual information we may have, or if they refuse to discuss risk versus benefits.
There are many “risky” things we do in medicine because overall it’s worth the risk in order to achieve the benefit. But that decision shouldn’t be made by a doctor who stonewalls the patient.
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Kayla Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 10:12 am Kayla(Quote)
Very well said, Jane. I couldn’t agree more. I had a 27 week stillbirth 3 pregnancies ago. So when I got pregnant this last time with my son, my OB opted to do BPPs (bio physical profiles), and from 20 weeks on I had 2 ultrasound a week!! That seems like a ton, but for me it was worth the “risk” of ultrasounds, because if my son showed signs of distress, or if the placenta detached (which it did with 2 of my pregnancies, one where my baby girl died), we would be able to catch it. With my son, the placenta detached at 36 weeks, so I was induced and now have a very healthy 1 year old. I don’t think this particular comment about ultrasounds is extremely offensive. It is ridiculous, however that the doctor would lie to the patient and say there are NO risks. Proven or not proven risks, I don’t know of any, but at least give the patient some options to make an informed decision for herself.
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