Ultrasound Scans during Pregnancy
Ultrasound Scans -Are they safe during pregnancy?
Evidence may suggest that unborn babies are affected by Ultrasound Scans.
Ultrasound scans, have long been regarded as a safe means of checking on the health of unborn children. The Scans are conducted using high-frequency sound waves to give X-ray-like images of the inside of the womb, without using radiation, which carries a risk of causing cancer. Between the 1960s and today, the number of pregnant women having scans in has increased from a handful to virtually all.
Studies have concluded that Ultrasound scans may cause brain damage and cause neurological defects and complications such as learning difficulties and epilepsy.
Interestingly it is found to also affect the rates of left and right handedness. Findings indicate that in the recent years, after ultrasound scans were introduced the rates of left- handedness has significantly increased by 30%.
In the 1990s, American researchers found that ultrasound tissue heating can cause bleeding in mouse intestines, ultra sonographers altered the power of the scans reducing heating. Also the latest discovery, by scientists at University College Dublin, are the first to discover that scans may create changes in cells.
