Early pregnancy can feel unreal. How do you know the fetus is there when you can’t see it or feel it moving yet? So the first ultrasound picture can feel momentous: Finally, your whirring brain can be placated with direct proof. But other than the visual evidence that you’re not dreaming all this, you may not know what to expect from prenatal ultrasounds. We’re here to walk you through it.
During an ultrasound exam, your health care provider will record the fetus’s movement, heartbeat, breathing and the amount of amniotic fluid surrounding your baby. But there’s a lot more to know about the tests.
For this guide, I interviewed two obstetricians who specialize in ultrasounds — and a radiologist whose observation led to a diagnostic breakthrough — to find out what you need to know about prenatal ultrasounds.
Usually an ultrasound technician or your ob-gyn will perform an ultrasound. Get ultrasounds at an accredited facility, not at an unaccredited place at the mall. An unaccredited facility “can either miss something or find something that will upset you that’s not really there,
”said Dr. Beryl Benacerraf, professor of radiology and of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Yes, you will get pictures of the baby, but an ultrasound is not primarily a photo shoot. It’s O.K. if the result is a blurry picture of the baby’s elbow, as long as your health care provider gets the necessary medical information.
