So I just got back from my routine monthly prenatal visit. I’ll be 17w tomorrow, and as I headed out the door I asked about scheduling the anatomy scan since Charlie wants to find out the sex this time around. My midwife immediately said, “Oh! Well, I don’t really like ultrasounds, but if you want one, I’ll order one. Do you want an anatomy scan or just one to determine the sex?”
Well shit. I dunno?
For reference, my insurance BLOWS and it costs us about $300-400 per ultrasound to get it done at the local hospital (because of the actual ultrasound charge + the radiologist overread). Apparently though, there is a clinic about 1h45 from here that will do a quick 10 minute scan to determine sex for $100.
Thoughts? Opinions?
Ultrasounds aren’t really necessary in healthy pregnancies, I know this. I had just been assuming we’d do the “standard” anatomy scan around 20 weeks because we did with Stella, but now I’m not so sure.
From here: The ultrasound is a noninvasive procedure that, when used properly, has not demonstrated fetal harm. The long term effects of repeated ultrasound exposures on the fetus are not fully known. It is recommended that ultrasound only be used if medically indicated.
I mean, I’m not worried about genetic abnormalities. I know that it’s possible, and because of the ALI blogging world I’ve heard of those awful stories where something terrible was diagnosed at that scan… but at the same point, the chance of something being severely wrong at this point is so incredibly low, and part of me would like to just skip the anatomy scan altogether.
How did you decide? Did you even question doing it or did your provider just order it routinely for you?
Also, the clinic that does sex determination uses 3D/4D technology, which totally creeps me out. What do you know about the risks of 3D vs 2D ultrasounds/sonograms?
Help!
(PS – a pet peeve of mine is when people use the terms sex and gender interchangeably. They are different things!)