Tuesday, August 08, 2006

New Ultrasound Study

I just read this article on cnn.com: Ultrasound scans can affect brain development.

I do not doubt that sonograms do things to fetuses that we don't know about--we may never know about in our lifetime. Lord knows I had enough sound waves shot through me to cook little A in my womb juice. All because I was 40 and pregnant, and no one wanted to be sued for malpractice by a geriatric parent.

Here's a question that the study raised in my mind: Is there a connection between the growing number of sonograms done on fetuses and the rise in autism diagnoses?

4 comments:

anne frasier said...

jesus. that is frightening. :(

Mary Louisa said...

Isn't it? Gaaaah.

Sometimes when we're out doing errands, A (now 16m) will sit very still and stare at strangers. This apparently gives some people the creeps--you know, the kind who insist on goochy-goochy-ing a smile out of every child they encounter? Their comments range from "Did she just wake up from her nap?" to "Is she okay?" I always say something too polite like, "She's not really a smiler." My new response is going to be, "It was the ultrasounds."

anne frasier said...

when my son was born, they said he had a heart condition that would require multiple surgeries as he grew. we had to take him to the university of Iowa for test all the time. he had so many chest x-rays and other radiation that he should have glowed. when he reached about 12, they said he was fine. that he'd never had the condition, because that kind of thing didn't go away on its own. something made it look as if he'd had it. so sometimes i really wonder if we're better off without a lot of this supposedly helpful crap. now that my son is an adult, i still worry about all the radiation he had.

Mary Louisa said...

yikes. Yeah. The things we learn, after the fact, eh?