Moms, did you have an ultrasound?

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Note: this poll is about whether ultrasound is safe, not about using ultrasound to check for autism.

This is for all of the moms. I'm trying to get pregnant and I've been reading a lot about asburgers and autism. 700% increase of cases since 1990 is scary. 1 in 54 boys with autism in the US reported this year is so very sad. It appears radiation for ultrasounds increased 8X in 1993. Docs say its "good" radiation, but I'm not so sure.

I pretty much hit every demographic that makes my future kids at risk for asburgers/autism, so I want to do a little research of my own. If you could answer the poll, I would be grateful.

Also, if you did have ultrasounds, could you list how many of them you had and when you had them?

*puts away ten foot pole*

I have AS (I'm 48, too old to have been effected by u/s in the womb) amd I have four NT kids. I had ultrasounds with all of them. With the first, I worked in a hospital in an area where there was a portable U/S machine. There were several of us pregnant at the same time, and so occasionally we would play with the machine and look at our babies. I had one through my doc's office with that pregnancy and quite a few others just for fun every month or so with my friends. He's fine.

With the other three, I had one u/s each time to make sure the baby was ok and I also had an AFP drawn with all of them.

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I had more scans with my DD who is not ASD and less with my son who is ASD...So, not sure if that helps, but yes I had scans!

My husband's mother and father both have close relatives with classic severe autism. Both men are approaching 50. My husband's mother's mother has a history of mental illness and so does a lot of the members in her family. Both my husband and I work in the engineering field (and we both have a lot of people who work in the sciences in our immediate family). I think all of that contributed to who my son is today.

I wouldn't worry too much about all of that now. It took my son until he was just over 2.5 yo to show his autism/developmental disorder. He is 3 and we were not able to get a diagnosis as yet but he's def not NT as of now,

My husband's mother and father both have close relatives with classic severe autism. Both men are approaching 50. My husband's mother's mother has a history of mental illness and so does a lot of the members in her family. Both my husband and I work in the engineering field (and we both have a lot of people who work in the sciences in our immediate family). I think all of that contributed to who my son is today.

I wouldn't worry too much about all of that now. It took my son until he was just over 2.5 yo to show his autism/developmental disorder. He is 3 and we were not able to get a diagnosis as yet but he's def not NT as of now,

I don't see any point to answering the poll because you would be hard pressed to find anyone anywhere who never had an ultrasound. So if 100 percent of posters say "yes," it remains meaningless. What you need to know is how rates of autism compare in the rare groups that skip the ultrasound, and as far as my quick google search can tell, such data does not exist.

All that said, you do see some interesting articles if you google the topic, and maybe we as a society do tend to overuse the procedure. If everything else looks good and you want to skip it becuase you are worried about the unknown effects, then skip it.

Just be aware I've got my own theories about potential environmental contributors to the severity of AS (I firmly believe in genetics at the base), and you can't possibly avoid every potential one. It won't be the end of the world if your child is ASD, and every choice you make will be balancing a dozen unknown variables.

I had 4 ultrasounds. First one was to check for multiples, as my daughter is an IVF baby, second one was standard, third one was to check for abnormalities, at 20 weeks, and 4th one was because I had a small bleed, late in my pregnancy.

But, my mum had none and I'm probably on the spectrum, my gran had none and my mum is probably on the spectrum and my great-grandmother had none and my gran was probably on the spectrum. So, do I think ultrasounds cause autism? No

PS The correct spelling of Asperger's is at the top of your screen, under the WrongPlanet.net logo.

I had about 7 ultra sounds - however I don't think they're causing the surge in autism diagnosis. I am Aspie and my Mother didn't have any ultrasounds. I had so many ultrasounds because I have what's called a Mullerian anomaly, my uterus is bicornuate/septate which means it's split into two chambers and I only carried my baby on my right side. This made the baby high risk for IUGR (intra uterine growth retardation), transverse breech and preterm labor (only the last of which happened). I have several other internal birth defects that are more consistent with environmental pollution (take a close look at pesticides) than genetics, though I don't doubt an individual's level of susceptibility is genetic.

Oh and I don't mean to be rude, but it's spelled "Asperger's", a lot of people take offense to "asburgers" (@$$ burgers). Edit: Sorry, didn't see that Mummy of Peanuts just told you too.

I only had one ultra sound in my son's pregnancy and I had two in my first one. One when I discovered I was pregnant and two after I lost the baby. I was cramping and I was too worried about having an ectopic pregnancy so they gave me one. Then the second time it was because they wanted to see if I had a miscarriage or if I was behind in my pregnancy. I already knew it was a miscarriage and I made the ultrasound person spit it out because he was taking too long to tell me.

I had one for my son because they just wanted to see everything and make sure everything is good and I got to see the gender of my baby. I actually waited for them to do it because I wanted to know the gender so I would know what to buy. So far he is normal and my grandmother probably had AS and so did my other relatives like my great uncle and my dad's brother and I think my dad has traits. I remember my mother saying about one of her sisters may have it.

I think my mother did have an ultra sound with me but she can't even remember because she always contradicts herself. She has said yes and no and gets her thoughts mixed up. I wouldn't say she lies to me, she just has a poor memory and does her best to remember.

I had many, many ultrasounds and my son has autism. I probably had one every 2 weeks. However I think he was already destined to have autism, the ultrasounds were for cerebral ventriculomegaly, and it is not uncommon for children displaying this in the womb to have autism.

Um, do you have documentation of the statistic about ultrasounds and radiation?

My understanding of ultrasounds is that they use sound that is above our auditory range. Basically, it's a technological version of what dolphins do underwater to find fish. While targeted ultra-high-frequency sound does have an effect on the body (sometimes they use it on kidney stones, right?) it's not the same thing as radiation. See http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_d ... and_x-rays

(Wreck-Gar, my 10-foot-pole seems to be permanently affixed, and I obviously have the same problem my son does with touching things.)

I did not participate in the poll, either, but I think you are going to have trouble doing your own "study" of this.

It is standard procedure for a lot of OBs to do ultrasounds at various points of the pregnancy. So you are going to get a lot of "yes" votes that are going to unduly scare you just because they are on an autism board.

High risk pregnancies tend to get more ultrasounds. "High risk" will correlate with factors varying with maternal age, family medical history and medical conditions before or during pregnancies. You will not be looking at ultrasound data independently of other variables that may or may not correlate to a statistical relationship with autism.

You would have to find a statistically significant random population (Wrong Planet folk are not a random representation of the population,) and ask a multitude of questions, including whether or not a given birth resulted in a spectrum child, so you can create a multiple linear regression with a number of different variables; and because of the nature of the data, I would not expect statistically significant results.

OK, that was probably more Aspie an answer than you wanted. What I am trying to say is a poll isn't going to be helpful. It will probably just (unscientifically) reinforce what you already fear.

I would also like to just mention that there are medical conditions (like heart defects) that might be better to operate on in utero rather than it be a surprise when the baby is born. (That is part of why ultrasounds are done) Ask your doctor about this, as I am not one.

The probability for this is probably not high, unless your family has a medical history that indicates differently. You will still want to weigh this risk into your calculus. I am not saying this to sway you, but just as another bit of information. To me this would be the main reason for doing an ultrasound. Other people have different ways of thinking and other reasons that to them would be good too.

I had the normal recommended ultrasounds witty my elder daughter, who has asperger's.

I had many many more with my next daughter who was high risk, ended up being delivered a premie and is now a thriving nt.

There really isn't a way to make this poll scientifically valid in this forum.

I think you'd be better off looking at the statistics of what could happen if you DON'T get an ultrasound.