Ultrasound and Doppler Dangers: Walking by Faith, Not by Sight.
What if when you went to the doctor you were asked " Is it okay if we shoot high frequency sound waves at your baby? They will dramatically heat up your baby's cells, causing them to vibrate, and then the vibrations will project a noise/image for us. " Sounds pretty scary doesn't it? Heating up and vibrating an unborn, developing baby's cells? That is exactly what ultrasound and Doppler's do.
The FDA says, that at higher levels, Ultrasound is used daily to speed the healing of fractures and, because of its heating effect, to treat sprains and pulled muscles. Even at low levels ultrasound can cause jarring vibrations and a rise in temperature.
What about the medical 'necessity' of ultrasound?? Don't Doctors do it to detect abnormalities. Perhaps, yes, maybe one ultrasound my be beneficial? Personally I don't think so, and others do to:
So before you have an ultrasound think about these questions:
1. Is the ultrasound only being used to tell gender, due date, gestational age or postition of a baby? Will the risks outweigh the benefit? Especially when due dates and gestational ages can be discovered using measurements or menstration. Is it worth putting my child at risk just to see if they are a boy or a girl? Did you know that it is very simple to tell what postition a baby is in simply by feeling them? Midwives do it all the time!!
2. Even if they did find a deformity, what difference would it make? What is the point, especially when most problems can be found with a safe blood test.
Dopplers can be replaced by a fetal scope. They work just as good and don't pose a risk. Did you know that a Doppler's waves are estimated to be as loud as a subway train inside the womb? ouch! No wonder babies pull away from them!
As Christian women, were do we put our trust? In an ultrasound? Or in a God that loves us and will take care of us. Do we really trust Him? Or do we trust the results from a machine, that has never been proven to show the absolute truth? Telling parents that their babies have no brains and when they are born, they in fact do! 50 years ago no one had ultrasounds or Doppler. Those people were just fine. Yes, babies were born surprisingly deformed or damaged. But what difference does that make as a Christian? Don't we have Hope or Faith anymore that God will take care us. And what difference does that make at birth? The baby will still be deformed. God is the Ultimate Physician. Trust me, He can handle it. Jesus raised people from the dead, I have no doubt He can heal a baby if it is His will. I urge you to pray and ask God if an ultrasound is what He thinks, as the Ultimate Physician, would be okay for you. Because, while our world is full of harmful things, like ultrasound, we serve a God who can heal and protect anything. Lets just make sure we aren't being stubborn about our worldliness. That we refuse to see what God calls of us because the world tells us something is or isn't right.
The FDA says, that at higher levels, Ultrasound is used daily to speed the healing of fractures and, because of its heating effect, to treat sprains and pulled muscles. Even at low levels ultrasound can cause jarring vibrations and a rise in temperature.
To give you some means of comparison, I offer this analogy. Have you seen a woman with an extremely high voice break a glass by singing an extremely high pitched note? That is an example of what just ONE relatively slow sound wave can do. Ultrasound technology is based upon ultra high-frequency sound waves, which bombard the child in the womb at an extremely high rate of speed. If one slow sound wave from a woman's voice can break a glass, what can super high frequency sound waves do to your child? Ultrasound waves in laboratory experiments have been known to damage chromosomes, produce internal cellular heat which damages cells, retard the normal development of cells, and many other phenomenon.This is why they have been so controversial. Our doctors tell us that they are safe, yet The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, The American Academy of Family Physicians and The American Medical Association have all cautioned against routine ultrasounds on pregnant women. The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine “strongly discourages the non-medical use of ultrasound for psychosocial or entertainment purposes.” Dr John Seed, who heads the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, said that although there is no proof that ultrasound is damaging, “we used to think that about x rays too.”
- read from this source here
" Three randomized controlled trials of Doppler Sound, the powerful form of ultrasound now used in most hospitals, have found an up to fourfold increase in perinatal (just before or after birth) deaths. One large study found 20 miscarriages in the group given ultrasound scans, but none in the group which was not. Another reported a doubling of pre-term labour in the scanned group. Another linked ultrasound scanning to retardation of the baby's growth in the womb. "Follow this link to see Medical Proffessionals, talking about how bad ultrasound may be for themselves (view comments).
What about the medical 'necessity' of ultrasound?? Don't Doctors do it to detect abnormalities. Perhaps, yes, maybe one ultrasound my be beneficial? Personally I don't think so, and others do to:
The argument for ultrasound scanning revolves around its ability to detect abnormalities early enough to abort. Firstly, several studies have shown that ultrasound does not improve outcomes for babies overall, and that there is no medical reason to propose an ultrasound scan in 80% of cases. Secondly, ultrasound scans can only detect a handful of the 5000+ potential chromosomal abnormalities. It is most successful at detecting Down's syndrome, picking up 80% of cases, but even here can diagnose Down's syndrome when it isn't actually present. Scanning can pick up `things that shouldn't be there' - resulting, again, in the abortion of healthy foetuses - when that `thing' often disappears during the pregnancy. Parents who decide not to abort are put through months of unnecessary worry. In one instance at a hospital in Cardiff (Wales), ultrasound scans detected `dead' babies which were subsequently found to be alive just before the induced miscarriage was to be performed.
Well, it depends on what you need to or want to do with the info and how much of a risk you are willing to expose the baby to for that info….I have always believed that the risk of ultrasound is 100%….some damage….some irritation to the baby…….have you tried standing near an oncoming subway train? so if I were to ever be in favor of an ultrasound it would have to be because I felt the info was absolutely necessary to the well being of the baby…..not the curiosity of anyone….not even the mother…..we all want and expect too much….too many guarantees….here is the thing….a baby can be perfectly healthy according to an ultrasound one day and then NOT the next day….I have said this to hundreds of women over the past 30 something years: one day’s assurance is not another day’s promise….. I want women to read EVERYTHING about ultrasounds and dopplers…..and if they find compelling data that suggests even 1% risk for their baby….they say " no….we will wait and see….(we are) not going to ADD to the possible compromise the baby might be in by shooting wound waves at the baby"….I mean really can any of us honestly think that there is MORE a of a chance that ultrasound does NO harm than that it has the potential for GREAT harm…..I don’t think women intend to put their babies at risk….but they are going to follow your suggestions……be brave….stand up for the babies….speak up for the babies….just in case…..we once thought x-rays were safe, too….
~ CARLA HARTLEY
So before you have an ultrasound think about these questions:
1. Is the ultrasound only being used to tell gender, due date, gestational age or postition of a baby? Will the risks outweigh the benefit? Especially when due dates and gestational ages can be discovered using measurements or menstration. Is it worth putting my child at risk just to see if they are a boy or a girl? Did you know that it is very simple to tell what postition a baby is in simply by feeling them? Midwives do it all the time!!
2. Even if they did find a deformity, what difference would it make? What is the point, especially when most problems can be found with a safe blood test.
Dopplers can be replaced by a fetal scope. They work just as good and don't pose a risk. Did you know that a Doppler's waves are estimated to be as loud as a subway train inside the womb? ouch! No wonder babies pull away from them!
As Christian women, were do we put our trust? In an ultrasound? Or in a God that loves us and will take care of us. Do we really trust Him? Or do we trust the results from a machine, that has never been proven to show the absolute truth? Telling parents that their babies have no brains and when they are born, they in fact do! 50 years ago no one had ultrasounds or Doppler. Those people were just fine. Yes, babies were born surprisingly deformed or damaged. But what difference does that make as a Christian? Don't we have Hope or Faith anymore that God will take care us. And what difference does that make at birth? The baby will still be deformed. God is the Ultimate Physician. Trust me, He can handle it. Jesus raised people from the dead, I have no doubt He can heal a baby if it is His will. I urge you to pray and ask God if an ultrasound is what He thinks, as the Ultimate Physician, would be okay for you. Because, while our world is full of harmful things, like ultrasound, we serve a God who can heal and protect anything. Lets just make sure we aren't being stubborn about our worldliness. That we refuse to see what God calls of us because the world tells us something is or isn't right.
