Pregnancy health centre

Concern at baby scan 'foetus parties'

13th January 2012 - The leader of the Royal College of Midwives is concerned that 'foetus parties' with 3D & 4D 'bonding scans' are commercialising pregnancy.

'Baby showers' where mums-to-be get gifts at a party were a US import - but now many UK companies offer live scanning events. Friends and family can watch as 3D and 4D moving images of the baby in the womb are shown on a monitor.

NHS regular ultrasound appointments often offer the chance to have a print out of a black and white grainy image of the baby, but should technology developed for diagnostic scans be used for 'entertainment' by private firms?

Professor Cathy Warwick is chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives.

"This is all about potential bad, rather than actual bad," she tells us. "There's no strong evidence that any harm is being caused."

Ultrasound concerns

However, she says the role of ultrasound scans is changing in women's minds: "They were originally created in order to detect problems. Women increasingly see ultrasound and these kind of technologies as giving them more information about their healthy baby - which happily most scans do.

"However, I think there's a big danger that if a woman is celebrating this picture of her foetus or baby, and then suddenly at a later stage in her pregnancy, hits problems, I think there's a potential danger that the trauma the woman experiences is greater.

"We don't actually know that's the case, but I think it's a possibility we should be considering. It's a bit like getting ready for your wedding: all the presents coming in, then suddenly realising you're not being married."

Early pressures

Professor Warwick is worried there's now pressure on a baby, even before born: "Are we putting these incredible expectations on our offspring at an earlier and earlier stage?

"Is that good for them, or is a more relaxed approach more appropriate?

"From a very early age, children are expected to be the best child in the class: to succeed at everything, to cross the finishing line first. Is that all now starting in the womb, and what does that do to the child?"

Scanning dangers?

Can a growing baby be harmed by over-scanning? "I think all the evidence we have about the impact of the current techniques that are used for scanning on the baby don't indicate any major harm," Professor Warwick says.

"I think there's one study that suggested there may be a link with hearing defects, but overall, the conclusion is that ultrasound scans are not harmful to the growing foetus."