Pregnancy ultrasound scans

Being pregnant is one of the happiest days in a woman's life and it is therefore necessary that precaution and care are undertaken so as to ensure the good health of both the mother and the baby inside the womb. One of the precautions being undertaken is pregnancy ultrasound scans. In this topic, we will discuss pregnancy ultrasound scans and what purpose does it serve.

Wikipedia defines ultrasound as:

"Ultrasound is cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing. Although this limit varies from person to person, it is approximately 20 kilohertz (20,000 hertz) in healthy, young adults and thus, 20 kHz serves as a useful lower limit in describing ultrasound. "

Pregnancy scans has many uses but in the medical world, this technology is regarded as one of the breakthrough in science, saving lives and making medical diagnostics easier.



Medical sonography is another term for pregnancy scans. This is used to visualized muscles, tendons and other parts of the human body. Among the uses of pregnancy scans especially in obstetric are the following:

* Date the pregnancy (gestational age)
* Confirm fetal viability
* Determine location of fetus, intrauterine vs ectopic
* Check the location of the placenta in relation to the cervix
* Check for the number of fetuses (multiple pregnancy)
* Check for major physical abnormalities.
* Assess fetal growth (for evidence of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR))
* Check for fetal movement and heartbeat.
* Determine the sex of the baby

Although medical specialist emphasized that ultrasound serves only as an aid to diagnostics and not to be used for diagnosing itself, pregnancy ultrasound scans is indeed a great help in the medical world.

NEXT pregnancy ultrasound scans