DEMAND STUDIOS ARTICLE:
 

How to Understand the Information on a Baby Sonogram

Overview

Having a sonogram is standard during prenatal care visits with your obstetrician. Between 16 and 20 weeks of pregnancy, the obstetrician will schedule the expectant mother for a sonogram with a sonogram technician. The sonogram will be able to confirm a normal pregnancy, assess the baby's age, rule out problems in the baby or in the placenta, uterus, and pelvis, read the baby's heart rate and check for multiple fetuses.
 

What is Happening & What You Are Seeing in the Sonogram

Step 1

This first sonogram will be performed with a transducer, a hand-held device that will be rolled over the pregnant woman’s belly after some jelly is applied to reduce friction. The transducer will be taking a live image of the baby inside the mother’s womb. The following steps will guide you through understanding what the technician is doing, and how to read the sonogram as he or she is doing it. Sometimes the doctors themselves perform the sonogram instead of a technician.

Step 2

After the technician has applied the jelly, he or she will place the transducer on the mother’s belly to begin looking for the baby. Once he sees the baby, he will start looking all around at first, just to see that the baby has all the right standard parts – heart and organs, arms, legs, fingers, toes, etc. The lighter images of the baby in the image show bone and tissue. The darkness surrounding the baby is the amniotic fluid. The baby will be easy to recognize as long as it is in a proper position and not moving around too much. Most of the time, mothers are asked to have a full bladder before going in for their sonogram so the baby is more crowded and has less room to move around. The baby’s head will be the most recognizable part, appearing large and white on the screen, You will even be able to see the baby's nose in profile, fingers on the hands, toes on the feet and more if the technician is able to capture such images.

Step 3

The technician should be able to tell you the gender of the baby. But she can also easily keep that to herself if you do not want to know. She will also confirm if this is a multiple pregnancy at this time. After this point, the technician will start to take measurements of the baby, to see about what size the baby is, measuring the baby’s femur (thigh bone), head, and abdomen. The technician will also measure the length from the crown to the baby’s bottom. All of these measurements contribute to a calculation of the gestational age of the fetus. This helps ensure the due date is about right and that the baby is growing properly. The technician will find these areas and freeze the image so she can take the measurements and mark them in the computer. The technician will let you know about what size the baby is in length/height.

Throughout the sonogram, if the baby is in a good position, the technician can freeze the frame and print the image for the mother to take home. The technician will explain the images as she is taking them, and can even type in the body part if she is going to print the image for the mother to take home.

Step 4

The technician will also be able to recognize any fetal abnormalities. Such abnormalities include dwarfism, chromosomal abnormalities and even Down syndrome. Most likely the technician will not share this information with the patient during the sonogram as he is not licensed to do so. The images will all be passed to the doctor for review. If there are any concerns, the doctor will call the patient in for a discussion and perhaps another specialized sonogram or amniocentesis to confirm the abnormality.

Step 5

The technician will also check on the health of the mother and the pregnancy using the sonogram. The technician will check the position of the placenta (to ensure there are no abnormalities such as placenta previa, where the placenta is next to or covering the cervix. Technicians can also detect gestational diabetes in the mother through placental abnormalities in the sonogram. The placenta appears in the sonogram as a thick curving border that is usually right on top of the uterus. The technician will also be able to see that the level of amniotic fluid is proper for a healthy pregnancy.

Skill
Easy

Keywords
what mothers are seeing in the baby sonogram
how to understand information in a baby sonogram
baby sonograms or ultrasounds

Reference
Ultrasounds During Pregnancy
Normal Ultrasound Images
Comprehensive Guide to OB Ultrasounds

User Bio:

Jodi Beuder is a writer and marketing consultant based in Reno, Nev. Her portfolio includes work for the "Reno Family Examiner," Skagen Designs and Teamwrx. Beuder holds a bachelor's degree in creative writing from the University of Redlands (Calif.). She has two books that are currently in review for publishing, one fiction novel, and one parenting book she co-wrote with her mother.