Too many scans?

[ronshi]

Hi Everyone,

I'm 5 wks along at the moment. This is my 4th pregnancy but I've had 2 mcs and a termination at 14 wks when they discovered acrania.

As you can imagine, I'm nervous about this pregnancy and feel the need to have regular scans to put my mind at ease.

I have medical insurance which allows me to have as many scans if I want with whoever I choose. I'd be happy going for monthly or fortnightly scans.

But I've read that too many can cause problems (or even miscarriage). My ObGyn has told me this is not true, but I know he's interested in billing my insurance company for as much as he can!

Have any of you heard anything about this topic? I'd apreciate some advice xx

 

[karamel]

I just popped over to this area ; and thought I'd mention something about this!

First I'll mention I'm from Canada, so scans are free here ;

A friend of mine, when she was pregnant with her daughters, was considered high risk for both pregnancies. Because of this, she was scheduled for scans monthly or every other week *i can't completely remember*. Both her girls are absolutely fantastic. If scans were really going to affect babies, they wouldn't schedule high risk pregnancies for a multitude of them.
I also have a cousin, who finally became pregnant with twins using invitro *sp?* ; she also had scans all the time ; to monitor the babies' growth.
So I doubt it's your OB just wanted to charge your insurance, it's just really not going to harm baby

 

[millwallrose4]

Some people have said they are dangerous, but my children have kidney problems and I have had many scans with each pregnancy (at least 6 and so far with this one 4) and it has never caused any problems.

I hope this pregnancy goes really well for you.

 

[eckarta]

its a non invasive test that uses sound waves... so i cant really see how it would harm a baby... but... like everything else, people have opinions.. hehehe

i had twins and had scans every month.. and they dont walk around bumping into walls or anything... and they are 5

 

[veganmum2be]

i worried over this, but i read into it, and asked a sonographer, and she was ademant no ammount of scans would cause harm.

i've already had 2, have my third next week, and i will then have one at 16 and 20 weeks for certain. but wouldn't turn any extra ones down.

 

[im_mi]

i asked my sonographer about this and she said that they like to only do the minimum of necessary scans. there is no proof that routine scans cause harm but the safety of 3d/4d scans is questionable as they havent been around for long enough to correctly study the long term effects.

if the scans are necessary then in my opinion its worth doing. she said to me that when the benefit outweighs the risk, they will scan frequently, but other than that it is pointless medically and no one knows what kind of effect exposing them to ultrasound waves so often will have in the future.

 

[aob1013]

There's no evidence suggesting it does harm, but no evidence saying it doesn't either. Personally i'd only go for scans if they are completely appropriate x

 

[Trying4ababy]

I get one every time I go to the Dr...

 

[Shellyvet2007]

I would say a regular US scan is not a problem. It is only sound waves bouncing off the baby showing internal structures and used appropriatley e.g. appropriate strength and frequency of the waves - shouldn't harm your baby