Blog posting By Flore Fonmi1st year DMS student
Montgomery College
Keepsake Ultrasound
Now days there are many organizations that are opening up all over the United States in order to provide keepsake pictures and videos to the family regarding their unborn child. Even though it is exiting to have an idea of how a baby will look like before it is born, there are many questions that are raised as to whether or not keepsake ultrasound should be allowed. Right now, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an ultrasound study should be ordered by a doctor for a medical reason and performed by trained credential sonographers or physicians. This is because there may be some misdiagnoses or misinterpretations that will not reflect the reality or the baby’s condition. Would you agree with this decision? Some organizations will tell us that they just want to make the parents happy or they want to reduce the cost of some mothers who will spend more money if they don’t know the gender of their unborn baby. In my opinion, I would not blame the parents for wanting to “see” their baby; however we have to think about the effect of exposing the baby to the high frequency sound waves, especially when the exam is not performed by a trained healthcare professional. According to the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM), appropriate trained and credential healthcare professionals should be the only ones performing ultrasound on the patients. This is because they have been trained to recognize pathology and how to avoid over exposing the baby.
Do you think it is right to allow these organizations who promote keepsake ultrasound to continue their business? Do you have an opinion on whether keepsake ultrasound should be allowed?
Whether you agree or not, there are people who will continue to seek out getting keepsake pictures as long as they are being offered. If that is the case, these people should ask if the person performing the ultrasound study is a trained sonographer or healthcare professional qualified to perform ultrasound. Will they be able to inform a patient if something is wrong or relate any diagnostic problems to their physician?
References:
http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/commemorativeultrasound.html
http://www.aium.org/publications/statements/_statementSelected.asp?statement=31
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2003081435_ultrasound25.html
3 comments:
I just discussed about this issued with my CI. we disagreed with this providing keepsake pictues and videos. It cannot be allow to promote for their profit.What if the unborn babies are abnormal? The babies are not souvenirs. In my opinion,an ultrasound study is performed by trained credential sonographer to diagnose or interpret.
American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM), appropriate trained and credential healthcare professionals should be the only ones performing ultrasound on the patients it's true.
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