Medical Questions » Radiology Questions » Question No. 837
| Question: | My obstetrician wants me to have a scan to check on the size of my baby. I am only 4 months pregnant. Are these scans safe in pregnancy? |
| Answer: | YES! There is absolutely no doubt that an ultrasound scan is safe in pregnancy. Thousands of experiments into its safety have been carried out, and millions of women have had the procedure during pregnancy with no evidence of problems.
Ultrasound is not an X-ray, but actual waves of sound, rather like the dog whistle that animals can hear but which humans cannot.
A greasy substance is rubbed onto your abdomen, and an instrument that contains a miniature high-frequency sound-producing element is then rubbed across your tummy. The sound waves pass through your body, but are reflected and distorted in different ways by different types of tissue, fluid and bone. These distortions can be picked up and measured to give a detailed picture of the growing baby.
The size, shape, position, development and sometimes the sex of the child can all be determined, so it is a very useful tool for measuring the progress of a pregnancy, and making pregnancy safer for both mother and child.
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