Wednesday, December 17, 2014

US Food and Drug Administration Issue a Warning Against Unnecessary Ultrasounds

Unnecessary Ultrasounds, Ultrasound safe, Ultrasound unsafe

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning to pregnant moms to stay away from 3D "keepsake ultrasounds" that don't have any medical purpose.

On Tuesday, December 16 the FDA announced their revised consumer update that states that the department "strongly discourages" ultrasound imaging for the purpose of just viewing what the fetus looks like with no medical reasons at all.

"While FDA recognizes that fetal imaging can promote bonding between the parents and the unborn baby, such opportunities are routinely provided during prenatal care," FDA added.

Experts said that there are no evidence that ultrasounds cause harm to unborn babies and moms, however they can cause light heating of human tissue that may produce very small bubbles (cavitation) in some tissues.

Doctors have no findings yet on the long-term effects of these small bubbles or cavitation, which is why the FDA issued a recommendation that ultrasound scans be done only when needed medically and by trained operators. FDA also said that  Doppler ultrasound heartbeat monitors should be used only by professionals.

The agency don't like the idea of the current fad of businesses who do fetal keepsake videos and exposed the fetus to up to an hour of ultrasound to create 3D/4D images.

Here is the FDA consumer update:
http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm095508.htm

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