New 3D Ultrasound Imaging – The best view of your baby

Two-dimensional ultrasound imaging has been around for decades. It gives a trained eye a look into the proper measurements of the fetus and a glimpse over several scans and several weeks into the growth patterns of the child. It enables the OB-GYN to understand if the child is healthy or if there are any potential problems looming that might require more invasive tests like amniocentesis.

Three-dimensional imaging dates back to 1987 and lends an entirely different and more realistic picture to the examination. To the trained and untrained eye alike, the image, of the fetus is no longer a Rorschach test of black and white shading, it is the picture of a child’s face, hands, feet and body. Described by many mothers as far more rewarding, the experience to them is real. The parents can count fingers, toes, yawns and often can say with authority that their child looks like daddy, mommy or grandpa.

Ultrasonic waves are sent through a wand into the mother’s womb from different angles and are reflected back to the monitor from the shapes inside. These echoes are processed and rendered into a picture enabling the doctor to see the baby’s physicality and the anatomical structure of the mother inside.

Traditional 2D imaging only provides what are described as slices of this image. It takes a trained eye to assemble a full picture from 2D renderings.

Risks to the baby and the mother are considered minimal. Exposure to the sonic waves of 3D imaging are no more intense than those of 2D imaging. Two-dimensional imaging has been common practice over the past three or four decades.

Professional Gynecological Services provides both pictures on a CD and a DVD of the full 3D ultrasound experience to it’s patients.