# Buying an ultrasound machine to use at home (if you could afford it, would you?)



## Honeybee88x

I know this might sound crazy but they sell ultrasound machines on ebay and I am really tempted to talk my DH into letting me save up for one for when I get pregnant again. They are very expensive though :wacko: and it would be a big big luxury.

I don't even know if id just be able to put the probe on my stomach and see stuff or whether I really do need to be trained to be able to see something or whether the training is just so that you can interpret what your seeing :shrug:

It would just be nice to see the :oneofeach: playing around whenever I wanted, especially as most of us only get 2 short ultrasounds.

I would worry about the risks to though I wouldnt want to cause any problems to myself or the babies but I also know they have been using ultrasounds for years without issues.

Is anyone else crazy enough to consider buying one of these? are you tempted ive if you wouldn't buy it?


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## kristel_

I must admit this has crossed my mind lol. And now i even searched ebay to see if people actually do sell them and they do!!!!! Item number 150829118769 £2400 lol. Expensive luxury, but i expect it's only a small fraction of what they cost new!


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## Malakai13

I use the one at work along with the doppler :thumbup: luxury of being a vet nurse


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## Honeybee88x

Malakai13 said:


> I use the one at work along with the doppler :thumbup: luxury of being a vet nurse

oh I wish :winkwink:

that must be cool

how easy are they to use? I havent got the first clue how to use one. do you think id be ok to just have a play around and see or do you think it would be to difficult to learn without tuition? :hugs:


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## lovelylisa84

hahahaha yeah i wish I could...theres an app for a smart phone but you have to pay for it and the company only allows qualified license professionals to have the app on their phone...
i wish i was qualified.
I would probably do what Tom Cruise did...have it then donate it to a hospital afterwards.


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## sugarplumx

I would totally buy one if I made more money LOL! That would be so awesome


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## rn2011

No, I wouldn't buy one for several reasons. The first is cost. Secondly, I think it would be too tempting to use it often and I am not sure there aren't long term effects of frequent ultrasounds. I also think it could prove more anxiety provoking than relieving.


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## LeighAnne

I would definitely buy one if I could afford it!! I remember with my first thinking "If only there were a little window on my belly so I could see in."

:)


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## jenmc226

I would not buy one regardless of cost. My life is busy enough without trying to find time to explore my insides. I have 2 children at home that need my attention more than this one does at the moment. And as a previous poster mentioned there isn't concrete testing on long-term ultrasound exposure and I don't feel like taking any unnecessary risks.
If this were my first child I'm sure I'd be more excited about something like this but as it's my 3rd I guess I could care less as long as baby is healthy and safe.
I practically fell asleep at my 20wk ultrasound at the doctor's office.


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## LeighAnne

Having lost twins at 23 weeks out of the blue.... I know this would be something that could calm my nerves at times.


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## Sunshine12

No I wouldnt. I wouldnt even buy a doppler TBH.


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## LeighAnne

I didn't do the Doppler thing either. I just gotta go on faith my baby will be ok.


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## san fran shan

I would not regardless of cost. I have read some stuff that tries to link frequent and early ultrasounds to autism. Freaks me out. I am expecting twins so I already have more frequent ultrasounds. I also have been to the ER three times for severely painful ovarian cysts which required an ultrasound at each ER visit. So I am only 13 weeks and have had 7 separate ultrasounds...which is why I was Googling it and reading about it. I try not to think about it too much because the extra ones were medically necessary to due to the severe pain and cramping. But it definitely is a concern in the back of my mind.


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## Cails

I wouldn't either. I'm sure I would see things that are not there and end up diagnosing my baby with a million different problems. Google plus an ultra sound machine at home could be very dangerous as far as my anxiety levels go. And like the other posts said frequent ultrasounds have not been proven safe as not enough studies have been done. I can imagine why you'd want one though :D


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## tinytabby

I've not got a Doppler and I wouldn't want more ultrasounds unless medically necessary. You just don't know what effect it has on the baby. Once I could feel my baby moving about inside me, that was enough reassurance that everything was ok.


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## Bunnikins

Am slightly offended ;-), im a sonographer and I spent 2 years post graduate training to learn how to scan and interpret ultrasound images. Its not as easy as it looks you know!


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## Hayley90

Ugh,nope. Partly because the machines we use at work are like £80,000 and secondly because I'm not an ultrasonograoher, I'd have no idea what to look for and what I was looking at - inexperience alone would do more harm than good.


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## LisaL79

If I had the money, I would TOTALLY buy one  lol
All of those days freaking myself out over nothing... it would've been so nice to have something like that so I could take a quick (or not so quick) peek at the LO :)


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## MissyMojo

If i had the money to buy one, id prefer , to use that money for private scans, where professionals can look properly, but id want a dvd and a gazzillion images everytime


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## morri

I wouldnt. You would just scare yourself if you didnt find everything like the doctor does. . Also if theres no scan to look forward to at each appointment it would be sad.


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## honeybee2

I wouldn't. I'm sure it would cause too much anxiety.

Plus, I heard the actual doppler things cost more than the machine itself sometimes!


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## anita665

They aren't that easy to use but after some playing around you would most likely be able to find baby. The problem is it takes a lot of training to know what you are seeing and without that knowledge + access to google, you'd spend more time worrying than not.


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## chattyB

No I wouldn't, personally I think ultrasounds are the biggest ever scientific experiment on pregnant women - they've not been "properly" tested and no one really knows the long term effects of regular ultrasound on a fetus.

There are studies showing that ultrasound "heats" the tissues of where the ultrasounds hit and can cause cell changes in the developing baby. 

Has anyone else wondered why babies effectively move away from the transducer during scans/using the Doppler? Can they hear it? Feel it? Are they finding it uncomfortable? Until they can prove conclusively that there are no detrimental effects to the baby, I don't think I'll ever trust them. I can see the need for them in certain situations (dating/confirming fetal problems) but I feel recreational scans are playing with fire.

I'm not judging people who choose to have regular scans - its just not my personal preference.


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## Pixles

No, but i think id like it if my Drs surgery had one. so if i felt something was wrong they could check it there and then insted of being sent to hospital. =S dunno. wouldent want one myself. i dont even want a home doppler!


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## Larkspur

I think this is an idea that sounds cute in theory (I've joked that pregnancies should come with a viewing window) but not so great in practice.

Like ChattyB says, apart from the unknown detrimental effects of frequent ultrasounds owing to lack of long-term research, I just don't think they're anywhere near as much fun for baby as they are for mama and papa. My ultrasound tech actually said that babies don't seem to enjoy ultrasounds and try to move away from the wands. My little guy hates the Doppler and kicks or pushes it away every time the midwife tries to find his heartbeat.


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## SarahBear

I would never buy one and I don't think you're out of line when you consider the risks. There is a real possibility that ultrasounds increase risks to the baby. They are considered safe because there is NO way to trace a problem back to the ultrasound. I say, don't do it, leave it to the professionals, and keep ultrasounds to a minimum. They are a tool, not a toy.


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## Sunnie1984

I'm pretty lucky in the sense that I get ultrasounds at every ante natal appointment as standard, so Iv'e seen LO about 12 times over my pregnancy so far. 

I'd be tempted to buy one, but I think the ones that are used in hospitals are about £70,000, so I'd be concerned that the ones on ebay aren't as reliable. 

I think I'd rather use the money to pay for additional private scans when I wanted to check on the baby, to make sure someone who knows what to look for saw the baby, to catch any potential problems. 

x


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## MindUtopia

I definitely wouldn't, but I'm a hands off, as little technology in pregnancy kinda person. 

There definitely have been some studies that show their are risks to frequent ultrasounds, and more we just don't know because in western societies, they are almost ubiquitous (as in everyone gets them). Here's an interesting study on frequent ultrasound use though: 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/014067369391944H

They found that women who had frequent ultrasounds were 35% more likely to have a low birth weight baby (<10th percentile) and 65% more likely to have a very low birth weight baby (<3rd percentile). It's a pretty big sample, which means it's unlikely the findings are entirely by chance. For me, I just wouldn't chance it. Plus, even if I had that kinda money lying around, I'd rather spend it getting ready for baby.


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