People are usually surprised when I tell them that I have never had a prenatal ultrasound despite having 3 children. Ultrasound is a standard medical procedure that most pregnant women undergo at least once during pregnancy if not 2 times or more. Even birthing centers that specialize in low risk pregnancies such as where I received my prenatal care, recommend at least a single ultrasound.
It is never a good idea to submit to any medical test without first understanding exactly what you are getting yourself into.   Just because nearly every single pregnant woman gets an ultrasound or that most medical practicioners say that they are safe doesn’t mean that you should have one or that they really are safe.
Like many things in life, “safe” is certainly a matter of interpretation!
Make sure you have all the facts in hand before you judge whether or not the standard use of prenatal ultrasound is, in fact, truly safe for the precious life you are carrying inside you!
The experience that first got me very suspicious of ultrasound occurred when I was pregnant with my first child. Â I remember that the baby jumped and seemed extremely disturbed every time I had a prenatal visit and the midwife used a doppler to check the heartbeat.
Why is my baby so upset by this doppler, I thought?   Intuitively, it seemed that something was just not right about the overly casual use of this device.
Why didn’t the midwife just use a fetascope instead, I wondered?
I went home after one of those prenatal visits determined to find out the truth.  I started researching and was shocked to find out that dopplers are a form of ultrasound!  I also discovered that ultrasounds in general are not the innocuous test that prenatal caregivers would lead you to believe.
Ultrasounds Have Never Been Proven Safe
The American Medical Association warns against unnecessary exposure to ultrasound.   A number of studies have indicated probable danger with this routine prenatal test.  One of the most concerning for me was a study reported in the journal Epidemiology in 2001 that showed that the chance of subtle brain damage increases dramatically in male babies whose mothers get prenatal ultrasounds.
Doctors have long known that left handedness in a child that is not genetically determined can be an indicator of brain damage.  When the rate of left handedness in children rises above 9% for right handed parents and 35% for left handed parents, scientists know that some form of negative impact on neural development has occurred.
In this study, the rate of left handedness for boys increased by 30% above historical genetic rates when a mother was exposed to prenatal ultrasound.  The incidence of left handedness was especially pronounced for mothers who had received more than one prenatal scan.
Left handedness has been increasing in recent decades and this puzzling rise beyond normal and historical genetic rates could very well be related to the common use of prenatal ultrasound.  The fetus’ brain undergoes critical brain development even very late in pregnancy (preterm babies are 5 times more likely to be left handed).   Moreoever, the brain of a male fetus develops at a slower rate than that of a female leaving boys at particular risk for ultrasonic injury.
The Ultrasound/Speech Delay Link
Another study that gave me pause and eventually persuaded me to opt out of all forms of ultrasound – even use of the doppler, was a study in 1993 and reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.  This study examined 72 children ages 2-8 who were suffering from speech delay of unknown cause.    These speech delay children were twice as likely as a control group to have been exposed to ultrasound in the womb.
Delayed speech is a likely indicator of sub-optimal conditions for development during gestation and ultrasound exposure seems to be linked to these less than ideal conditions for the fetus.
How Would Ultrasound Delay Speech?
Ultrasound as a potential reason for the increase in pediatric speech problems in recent years has a very likely cause.  This cause would be the incredible loudness that is produced in the womb as the ultrasound waves bounce around the uterus.
How loud, you may ask?
How about louder than your power mower, a motorcycle 25 feet away from you or a jet flyover at only 1000 feet?  How about LOUDER than the last rock concert you attended where your ears were ringing for a day or two afterward?
Yes, THAT loud!
Can you imagine the intense fright and the spike in stress hormones the baby experiences from an ultrasound not to mention the likelihood of damage to the little developing ears from 100-120 decibel ultrasound waves?
Oh, and by the way, hearing loss begins with exposure to sound at only 90-95 decibels, much LOWER than the sound the baby would hear from a routine ultrasound or a doppler heartbeat check.
Beware Continuous Electronic Fetal Monitoring During Labor
A favorite way for a hospital to monitor how baby is handling the stress of Mom’s labor is by strapping an electronic fetal monitor to her belly.   Be aware that this device is ultrasound and when it is strapped to your body, your poor child is not only enduring the stress of the birth process itself but also dealing with 100-120 decibel continuous, blaring sound at the same time!
I have no doubt that someday a study will finally be done that shows that babies that are subjected to the barbaric insult of electronic fetal monitoring during birth have more speech delay and brain damage induced left handedness than any control groups.
Just say no to electronic fetal monitoring and if your hospital or OB tries to talk you into the so called “benefits” of this practice, then find another OB!  Better yet, have your baby with a midwife at home or in a birthing center where such devices are never allowed through the front door.
More Reasons to Skip the Ultrasound
One of the best articles I’ve read on the dangers of ultrasound was written by Dr. Sarah Buckley MD in 2009.   In this article, Dr. Buckley gives a thorough rundown of the potential biological risks to the fetus from prenatal ultrasound as well as the studies that give pause for even considering such a procedure during pregnancy.
This article by Dr. Buckley is loaded with information.  If you are questioning the safety of ultrasound, I highly recommend that you dive in and read it thoroughly.  This blog only discusses the reasons why I personally chose to opt out of prenatal scans and use of the doppler.  There is much more to be told with regard to this story and more serious problems associated with ultrasounds such as a potential link with autism.
What Will Be Your Choice?
As mentioned above, after considering the biological dangers to my unborn children, I opted out of all prenatal ultrasound scans.  I also stopped allowing the use of a doppler during prenatal visits and asked the midwife to use a fetascope instead.   There is a drawback to using only the fetascope – you can’t hear the baby’s heartbeat until Mom is about 22 weeks gestation.
The inconvenience of waiting to hear the heartbeat so much later in the pregnancy seemed an easy trade-off for the peace of mind!
Note: I did allow the very brief use of a doppler during labor as use of a fetascope during the natural birth process does not work well when Mom is moving around a lot or is in and out of a laboring tub.
Even when I was 38 weeks pregnant with my third child and the midwife really wanted to do an ultrasound because it appeared my baby had stopped growing, I refused.   I knew intuitively that the baby was just fine despite my advanced maternal age.
Guess what?  I was right, the baby was indeed fine and was simply 2 inches shorter in length than my previous pregnancies which accounted for my much smaller belly measurements during the third trimester.   To this day, I have never regretted not getting any ultrasounds and am very grateful that I trusted my instincts early to question what was happening with the doppler exams.  I believe skipping the ultrasounds is a big reason why my children all were articulating complete sentences very clearly at a very early age.  Of course, nutrient dense diet played a huge role too!!   But, what good is diet if you undo it with damaging medical tests?
What were your reasons for or against getting prenatal ultrasound scans?
Update:  Medical critic and researcher Jim West has recently published a book detailing 50 in utero CAUSAL human studies from China that prove irrefutably the high risk of prenatal ultrasound even at low frequencies.  This article on ultrasound dangers contains more information on this research that Mothers must be made aware of in prenatal examination rooms.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Thanks Kate – it's so important that this type of stuff gets talked about as not enough is being said in doctor's offices about the potential risks.
Alix, I'm so glad your twins are doing great. I have no doubt that many scanned babies are totally fine, but the potential exists that harm can be done which is why pregnant Moms need to carefully make that choice for themselves after being fully informed.
Sarah, what a great article. Thank you for sharing this with us. I'm appalled I didn't question the ultrasounds when I was pregnant with twins. I had a lot of ultrasounds. Thankfully, I was very careful with nutrition, like you, and my twins were both early speakers and readers. My son is in third grade and doing at least fifth grade math. In general, twins tend to have lower IQs than their singleton counterparts, but I think we bring up that average despite the ultrasounds. Actually it's just occurring to me that the many extra ultrasounds used in twin+ pregnancies could be a causative factor in the IQ hit????
With my first baby…oh, the things I allowed! I was only 22, I didn't know anything, I was very mainstream (shocking, seeing where I am now!). I had two (long) ultrasounds, dopplers at every appointment from 16 weeks on, continuous fetal monitoring for at least 8 hours of labor. She didn't breastfeed well for SIX WEEKS. She had no interest immediately after birth (maybe because she was, um, slightly traumatized by what was done to her?) Luckily I wised up some and she's still breastfeeding at 32 months. But then we weren't eating real food yet, she had allergies to everything, she barely said a word until 27 months…. It was around 24 months we started GAPS and 27ish months when we relaxed the rules a little and got REALLY into real food…and she suddenly leapt forward and people comment now on much she talks!
My son was born at home. Three very brief ultrasounds and doppler a couple times early in pregnancy, and very briefly during labor. Other than that, nothing. No drugs. He breastfed immediately after birth and has always had real food. He started saying "mama" at 8 months and now babbles/signs at 14 months and is extremely advanced in his gross motor skills. I don't think this is an accident at all.
In my next pregnancy I will not be submitting to ANY ultrasounds or doppler (except, briefly, in labor) unless I REALLY felt that something was wrong. But I trust my instincts and generally feel these are not necessary, especially not as a routine test!
I think it's sad when you bring up an important, controversial topic that people who disagree with you accuse you of making other feel guilty when you are just trying to state the facts. I see it all the time. People need to be okay with THEIR choices and if they are different, then fine. I often think it's their OWN sense of guilt over what they choose, because they were not truly comfortable, that makes them say this.
Hi Linda, the information in this post is not common knowledge for most women who are pregnant. Women need to know the facts and make an informed choice once they are fully briefed on the very real risks of ultrasound. This is not about making anyone feel guilty but making sure the truth that ultrasounds are not safe is made available and not glossed over in the prenatal exam room.
This information is not factual and provides misleading and inaccurate conclusions. I taught ultrasound Physics for several years. I hope no woman who needs an ultrasound is mislead by this article.
I also wonder where the 100-120 decibels comes from. What is heard with Doppler is not the actual sound wave, but the difference in frequency between the transmitted and returned frequency. This difference is produced by movement of red blood cells. This is heard on a speaker with both a hand-held Doppler or Doppler on the ultrasound machine. As with any speaker, the sound is controlled by a volume button. So, what is the 100-120 decibel measurement referring to? We as professional sonographers, use a principle known as ALARA, as low as reasonably achievable, we use the least output for the least time. Of course ultrasound should be used for medical purposes, not just to know what sex baby a woman is having.
I do agree accurate knowledge is necessary, so don’t take the word of someone not educated in this field. Ask your Dr. or other qualified health professional or even better, a physicist.
Because of my age when I had my children(especially my second) it was necessary. In fact a high level ultrasound found a problem with my son's umbilical cord. He could have had all kinds of serious problems because of it(and my age). Thankfully, with much prayer, he not only was healthy, he is the exact opposite of what could have happened. Both of my children are not only healthy, they are extremely intelligent.
I don't think modern technology is always good, or not always good for everyone, but I am thankful for it in my case.
Neither one of my children ever jumped or seemed disturbed by the monitor for listening to the heart or any of the many ultrasounds I had. Please don't make people feel guilty for doing what they know is best for their babies.
I think Ultrasounds are a good way of knowing if your baby is growing right, and that nothing is wrong. They offer great piece of mind, and I will continue to get them with my pregnancies. I have a very hard time believing all of that information, especially since there are only a few links. You can't believe everything the internet tells you. Medical professionals are trained to make sure no harm comes to you or your baby and I trust that. I do NOT belive that one ultrasound in your pregnancy is going to harm the baby in anyway.
To each their own, but that is just my opinion.
Though, in some cases ultrasounds are necessary. Despite my desire to have a natural birth and pregnancy, I had a high risk pregnancy and could very easily have lost my baby without conastant monitoring. I had extremely low fluid (related to a structural abnormality in my womb) and also pre-term dialation. I had an 85% chance of losing my child in the third trimester. I had ultrasounds every two days for the last month of the pregnancy. My baby sometimes slept through them and sometimes showed signs of being awake. I will never forget seeing her practice her breathing–knowing that if she came early (which she did not)–that lung development was one of the biggest worries. She is not hearing impaired or speech delayed.
Had I not had all the ultrasounds I did- (which was at first was at least once a month- then later turned into every other week- and then the last month because I was high risk (multiple miscarriages in first trimester), my daughter would not be here. They had to induce me a few weeks early- she stopped growing and would have been stillborn had I refused ultrasounds and not allowed them to have caught on that there was IUGR. She was born at 37 weeks and stopped growing after 33 weeks. She was starving. She weighed 4lbs 2oz- at 37 weeks. Thank God for the ultrasounds.
Thanks for this info. Both my daughters are pregnant and it is difficult to not follow mainstream medical. My youngest daughter was the first "test tube" IVF baby at Mayo Clinic here in Rochester, MN. I had so many ultrasounds, I couldn't count them. She is healthy, 25 and pregnant with her first baby. However, I always felt uneasy with all the testing…..At some point you have to go with your instincts because there is so much conflicting data. It's difficult to find a comfort level….The daughters and husbands eat a WAPF diet (for one year).
Wow, this information is so crucial to be aware of. Thank you for sharing it. With my first pregnancy, I wasn't aware of the risks of ultrasound OR doppler- they become so commonplace in the "medical" world- they wanted me to have several, like it was no big deal. I'm now a huge supporter of avoiding or limiting ultrasounds, as it was part of the cause of needing to be induced according to medical "procedure" for low amniotic fluid. They would have not been able to induce me if I hadn't gone in for that ultrasound. My baby was totally healthy and would have been fine, but their routine interventions meant induction for me.
I'm so glad i'm learning so much more about natural ways to child rear, in preparation for having another child someday. http://www.nourishingcreations.com
I'm glad you said something about dopplers. According to my research (this was back in 2005 before I got pg the first time) dopplers are actually more powerful than ultrasounds! While I haven't had an ultrasound for my two pregnancies, I would get one if I was unsure of the dates or if anything 'felt off' in the pregnancy.
We used a fetoscope for my first, and with my second I did use a doppler a couple times near the end of the pregnancy 🙂
Doppler IS ultrasound
Ultrasound is not audible sound so humans can not hear or hearing be affected by ultrasound waves. What is heard when doing a Doppler is the Doppler frequency shift. It can vary in decibels. It is used little in OB, not at all in 1st trimester. Fluid and distance don’t allow baby to hear as much as you do. Doppler is also used for very brief intervals, unlike the rock concert or lawn mower. The thing we worry more about with Doppler usage is heat produced. This is also very small and has never shown bioeffects, same as all ultrasound. Don’t you think sonographers would be very concerned at doing ultrasound and hearing the audible Doppler shift if there was the possible hearing loss. They know enough not to be concerned, even when pregnant.
Sarah, What is the 100-120decibels produced by? This is audible sound, not ultrasound. The sound produced by the Doppler whether hand-held or ultrasound machine is caused by the difference in frequency between emitted ultrasound and that received after encountering red blood cells. This sound is definitely not in the 100-120 dB range. The sound comes from a speaker and volume is adjustable.
Here is what my friend posted for me when I posted this on a Facebook group:
Here’s the secondary report on the study from which this infographic was generated: “Neither adults nor fetuses can hear ultrasound waves because they vibrate at too high a frequency for our ears to detect them. But James Greenleaf, Paul Ogburn and Mostafa Fatemi of the Mayo Foundation in Rochester, Minnesota, investigated the possibility that ultrasound could cause secondary vibrations in a woman’s uterus….When the ultrasound probe pointed right at the hydrophone, it registered 100 decibels, as loud as a subway train coming into a station. ‘It’s fairly loud if the probe is aimed right at the ear of the fetus,’ says Greenleaf.” The PDF of the actual study is publicly accessible as well.