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Home › Articles › Tests and Procedures › Smile for the Camera, Baby

Smile for the Camera, Baby

The New World of Ultrasounds

By Teri Brown

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Lori Crits, a registered nurse and the program director of ultrasound education for the OB/GYN residency at Doctors Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, believes 3D imaging gives health care professionals more options when it comes to prenatal health. "Being able to see in the third dimension allows us to see defects that we were not able to see clearly before," says Crits. "We can look at a profile and see markers for Down syndrome or a variety of other malformations and syndromes."

Crits says there are two critical times during your pregnancy that ultrasound should be done. One in the first trimester to provide your doctor with accurate dates and another at 19 to 21 weeks. This is a very important scan and should be done only be a skilled sonographer, trained and registered in OB/GYN.

"This is called the anatomy scan," says Crits. "We call it this because this is the best time to make sure the fetus is developing the way it should be. All of the fetal anatomy is looked at and evaluated."

These new 3D and 4D images can detect many things that weren't visible before. Cleft lip, heart defects, bone dysplasias, facial abnormalities and many other conditions can be caught and possibly treated or prepared for much earlier.

Bonding in Four Dimensions
Yvette Deluca from Glendale, Ariz., noticed that while the 3D ultrasounds didn't make her feel any closer to the baby, it definitely made a difference to her husband. "I noticed after the ultrasound he started talking to the baby and rubbing my tummy more often," says Deluca. "It wasn't 'How are you feeling?' anymore. It became, 'How are you two feeling?' and 'Do the two of you need anything?' He was more aware of both of us. He took the ultrasound pictures and hung them up at work."

Deluca says the picture made the pregnancy more concrete forher two older daughters as well. "They both wanted copies to carry back and forth to school and to their father's house," she says. "Both of them showed their father and stepmom and friends."


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