Wednesday, January 28, 2009

To Sonogram Or Not To Sonogram- That's My Question


When my first child was born in 1976, one or two children per every ten thousand born was diagnosed with autism.

Today, one in one hundred and sixty-six children born are diagnosed with autism. That's right. One in one hundred and sixty-six children born are diagnosed with autism.

Now let's be clear- diagnosis is far more accurate than it used to be. There is a huge spectrum of autistic "disorders". And it may be that the rate of diagnosis is not as alarming as it seems, given that the weird kid in your third grade class may have been in one of those autistic spectrums which today would be diagnosed but then was merely labeled odd.

BUT, there is no doubt that it's on the rise and there have been no definite answers as to why the disorder is becoming more and more prevalent.

I've been wondering if there could be a possible link between the now-common use of sonograms in pregnancy and this terrifying trend. I'm not alone in this. Google autism and sonograms and you get something like 65,000 possible hits. There has actually been one small study done on mice by the Yale school of medicine in 2006 which showed that yes, there seemed to be some correlation between the prenatal exposure to ultra-sound waves and autistic-like changes in the mice brains. But it wasn't definitive.

Studies.

We need more studies aimed in this direction I think.
I mean- consider the fact that we are regularly bombarding developing brains and neurological systems with sound waves which cause not only loud sounds within the uterus but also heat. Pregnant women are advised NOT to get overheated in hot tubs and saunas because they know that this can have adverse effects on their developing fetuses. So I'm asking why sonograms are so routinely used in the prenatal care of women? There is no real proof that the use of these routine sonograms contributes to any actual better outcome for the baby at all. I am not talking here about using them judiciously for a diagnostic tool when problems are suspected. I am talking about using them as just a regular part of every pregnant woman's care. We have all gotten to the place where we take for granted that a pregnant woman knows the sex of her child long before birth. And with these new 3-D sonograms, you can tell which side of the family the child takes after while it's still in the womb. "Oh look, Frank, she has your nose! We better start saving for plastic surgery now."

Frankly, I think these sonograms are creepy and weird and almost an invasion of privacy and when done purely to satisfy the parents' curiosity, to give them a prenatal portrait of their child before it is born, is flat damn wrong. Because we don't know what all these sound waves are doing to these babies as they rock and move and swim within their mother's womb.
We know that babies will move away from the sonographer's transducer if possible. This alone seems to indicate that the heat and what one article I read called "jarring vibrations" could be causing discomfort in the child.

I don't know. They do so many things now to pregnant women both prenatally and in labor which no scientific studies have proven to actually produce healthier babies. Here in the US where childbirth is handled in a highly technological way, our infant mortality rate is higher than 36 other countries. This is out of 195, total. Certainly not the worst, by any means, but certainly not the best, either.

I am not suggesting that we go back to the days of old when women squatted in a field and delivered their young (would that it were so simple!) but I am suggesting that we don't have all the answers and I'm also saying- we aren't even asking the right questions.

In the meantime, I am hoping that Lily, who is at the moment interested in a midwife-assisted birth center birth, will avoid getting sonograms if possible.

It is only human and natural that we want to know the sex of our unborn child. It is only human and natural to wonder what that child looks like, to see if he or she has all those fingers and toes and it is so very reassuring to hear and see that little heart beating, those fingers fluttering.
But until we know for sure what the technology which allows us to see all of these things is doing to the child, I don't think we should be using it without a very good reason.

I have no doubt that my grandbaby will be beautiful. I don't need a creepy prenatal picture of him or her to know that. And although it would be convenient to know whether we're buying clothes for a girl or a boy, it is much better to my mind not to mess around with that beautiful child's brain or nervous system.

I am not a doctor, I do not play one on television, but I am someone who wonders. And this is what I'm wondering today. Autism, ADD, ADHD, and a whole lot of other things are showing up in numbers that have never shown up before. And they are showing up as the technology of ultrasound is being used as it never has before. Plain and simple common sense say we should consider these technologies in response to these growing neurological problems.

All I'm saying is, humans simply did not evolve being exposed to sound waves in the uterus and perhaps for a good reason. Could we please explore this possibility?

9 comments:

  1. Miss Moon,

    I agree totally. I think the medical world is so severely out of balance it is truly as scary as it is amazing.

    One thing that springs to mind is a study that was showing what I believe to be ultrasound's effects on whales... They are suffering greatly due to the use of some sort of sound devices used by perhaps military subs... Can't imagine what those same sorts of waves can do when they are in close proximity.

    I had a total of three ultrasounds with Harley. Two in the beginning to try to asses my due date... and one towards the end because I missed some sort of window to get another kind of test for some other fetal malady and it was the next best thing. I guess. He is sensitive to loud noises. Makes ya wonder.

    What I hate is that I found that my medical caretakers were considered LIBERAL in this town and they still made me feel guilty as hell if I didn't elect to get every medical test and procedure known to man and induce ASAP because my baby was a whole 10 days late. They pray on your mommy guilt that if something does go wrong that you may have had the opportunity to have changed that outcome by blindly listening to them while I believe the risk factors for many of these tests are not being discussed. Thank God I had you to counsel me and thank God I just could NOT get an amnio, which EVERYone thought I should have including my family. YIKES! You have opened a can of worms this time girl! Ok, nuff said. Thanks for making us all think and thanks for wondering.
    xo PF

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  2. Besides, babies all wear the same stuff for the first year anyway, regardless of gender. It's all tshirts and wee hats and diapers - no need to get all blue and pink about it right out of the gate.

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  3. I was glad to have the sonograms to check on Mr. Farty after having 3 miscarriages, being diagnosed with a blood clotting disorder and having to take medication for it. They provided accurate measurements about his growth, and helped me avoid a c-section by inducing 2 weeks early, because his head was very large (as it is, his head got stuck during birth and was very bruised). At 38 weeks, he was over 8.5 lbs, so it was a good decision for us.
    I wouldn't want to have them 'just for fun' though.

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  4. I'm with you! Let's explore that option and THESE:

    --Medicines of the mother. Many women are on prescription drugs for so many things, thanks to the drug companies [please watch the documentary Sicko for full facts.] Depression, arthritis, sleeping pills, wiggly-legs, allergies, etc. Even if you stop taking these meds when you find out you're pregnant, you usually have already exposed the baby-fetus to the meds for at least a month or so--not to mention it takes at least three months to fully detox these drugs from your system. Even advil should be avoided...what you injest, the baby injests.

    --Pain Meds during childbirth. Who knows what those do to the baby.

    --Shots for the baby. Boosters, etc. And there's some new shot kids are getting that is a "Chicken Pox" shot, has this been tested? Jenny McCarthy's son has autism, and she wrote a book all about these shots that she believes are the cause. It's an interesting read for sure.

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  5. Petit Fleur- And obviously Harley is FINE and wonderful and a genius. So all is well there. But yes, even the most "liberal" of practices do things that I wonder about. Fear of law suits? No doubt that has a lot to do with it.

    DTG- I have already offered to tie-dye tiny little shirts for our coming precious one. Lily laughed but dammit, I'll do it! Tie-dye is gender-free.

    Rachel- Girl- that was proper use of the tool.

    AJ- Yep. Too many questions unanswered. And yet, while they deny pregnant women such things as certain types of cheese, they feel no qualms about the sonograms.

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  6. I have often wondered why these types of disorders are so high nowadays as opposed to when I was a child, but never once did I consider sonagrams being a possible cause. Interesting, and very likely.

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  7. Well, Ginger, who knows? But it makes a modicum of sense.

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  8. 1) LOL

    2) I know nothing about the relationship between autism and sonograms, but I agree 100% about your questioning, your prioritizing, your skepticism of our medical practices!

    As I am auto-immune obsessed these days, I am only aware of the concerns over association between autism and multiple auto-immune disorders.

    http://www.craconferences.com/hawaii/sessions/JaquelynMcCandless.pdf

    http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/cceh/pubs/vandewater.pdf

    And it will always REMAIN that doctors are flawed in their understanding of our bodies and souls, particularly so long as they ignore us and keep acting so god almighty!

    3) If I ever am so lucky to have the children in my dreams, you know I'm going to need a midwife I trust with all that preciousness! Hint, hint.

    Best wishes! I hope your mood keeps lifting. Don't be afraid of these times. Your life is challenging you to overcome the things that still hold and hurt you. Don't give up. I think this is actually what progress looks like....

    :D

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  9. Sweet Quiet Girl- I am NOT a midwife, but I have assisted many. I had no idea there were links between autism and immune disorders. Weird.
    Thank-you, always, for the uplifting and encouraging words.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.