After the first couple of months of pregnancy, an abdominal ultrasound can visualize the fetus. This means that the doctor or ultrasound technician will put gel on the mother's belly and glide the probe on top of the skin to visualize the fetus. This is completely painless, and you can usually watch the images on the monitor and ask the ultrasonographer to identify what you are looking at. Most machines will also be able to print you a photo or two to jump-start your baby album!

Later in the first trimester, the ultrasound can also determine if you're going to be having twins, triplets – or more. Every pregnant woman should also have a formal ultrasound done by a trained prenatal ultrasound technician or obstetrician to look for birth defects. Having an ultrasound in the emergency department does not count for this important prenatal test.

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