When should pregnant women take ultrasound
tests? What is ultrasound test for?... That are all the questions that pregnant
women really want to know the answers.
Why pregnant women have to take ultrasound tests?
Taking ultrasound test is a way to record
the images of fetuses in the womb. Thanks to ultrasound test, pregnant women
not only can see the fetal developments, but also the environment surrounding
them, and especially, the fact that whether there’re birth defects or not.
Why ultrasound can bring out images of fetuses?
The images are recorded by ultrasound. A
machine will spread the ultrasound which will go through the body and come back
with an image transformation showed in the screen.
The process of an ultrasound test: a doctor
will rub a specific gel on the pregnant, then the ultrasound machine will scan
over again before the fetus and placenta are shown on the screen. Pregnant
women and relatives can see the images of fetuses on the screen.
Gel
is rubbed on pregnant women abdomen before doing ultrasound scans.
When is the important time for pregnant women to take
ultrasound tests?
According to obstetricians, during
pregnancy, there’re 3 moments in which pregnant women must take ultrasound
tests.
The 12th-14th weeks
of pregnancy: This is a moment that obstetricians
can define the age of fetuses precisely. There’s one thing that is more
important in this period is that obstetricians can measure the bright area
behind the neck to predict the abnormality of chromosome (the abnormality can
be the reason of Down, malformations of heart and limb, diaphragmatic hernia…).
If you carry twins, this is also the right time for you to know the precise
result.
Most
of organs inside fetal body are checked to guarantee normal developments.
The 21st-24th weeks
of pregnancy: Most of organs inside fetal body are
checked to guarantee normal developments. Fetal spinal cord, skull, brain,
heart, lung, kidneys, arms and legs are also able to be seen in this period.
Besides, obstetricians can detect most of morphological abnormalities of
fetuses, such as cleft lip, cleft palate and organs malformations. This period
of time is extremely important also because of the possible abortions before
the 28th week.
The 30th-32nd weeks
of pregnancy: There’ll be late abnormalities like
abnormal artery, heart and some structure area of brain which will all be
detected by ultrasound tests in this period of time.
Today, obstetricians can check the
navel-string to know whether it’s still good for transporting nutrients to
fetuses or not; placenta position and amniotic fluid status (turbid or clean,
less or much) are also checked at this time.
Do ultrasound tests harm fetuses?
There’s not research confirm that
ultrasound tests cause bad effects on fetuses. However, pregnant women
shouldn’t overuse the ultrasound test since there’re parts that are sensitive
to ultrasound in the body, such as eyes and gonads. To satisfy to many pregnant
women’s need, those areas are often taken ultrasound picture and not for
scientific purposes.
Though
ultrasound tests don’t affect fetuses, pregnant women shouldn’t overuse it.
Is 2D ultrasound not as good as the 3D and 4D?
Many people think that 3D ultrasound will
show the clearer, better vision… so it’s better than 2D ultrasound.
Nevertheless, according to specialists, 3D ultrasound is only used in case of
fetal defects, it can’t provide size, weight and age indexes as precisely as 2D
ultrasound does.
Do ultrasound tests help detect fetal malformations?
This is right in some cases as doctors
can’t detect malformations every time. There’re cases that not only when the
baby is born they are found to have malformation.
What should be noticed before doing ultrasound tests?
There’s one thing that everyone who are at
least, one time pregnant surely know is to drink lots of water and hold the
urination before taking ultrasound tests. The moment when you feel like
urinating is the best time to do the test because at the moment, your Vesica will
stretch, which makes it easier to see fetuses.
