Your ultrasound can be a momentous event during your pregnancy. It provides a literal viewing window into what is a beautiful, mysterious and magical process of a life being formed within the womb.
Of course, your ultrasound appointments also serve other functions such as being a way to check on the fetus’ health, identifying the possible sex of the fetus, and ensuring that they are developing normally.
Ultrasounds serve many other important functions during pregnancy and you can find more here about them.
Not many of us know exactly how an ultrasound works nor why they are such an integral part of the pregnancy journey. After all, our ancestors seemed to do fine without them, so how did they end up becoming so indispensable?
Let’s talk about what happens during an ultrasound, a little of the history behind it, and why we can’t do without it nowadays.
What Is An Ultrasound?
To answer that we first need to have a basic understanding of what sound is. Sound is a type of energy that moves in a wave-like pattern. Sounds have a frequency (Hz), which you can think of as being how fast the waves of energy are formed.
The higher the frequency the more waves that are able to be formed within a period of time. Sound waves will travel in a straight line till they hit something and then they’ll bounce back (which is what causes echoes).
Ultrasounds use high-frequency sound waves (between 2 to 18 megahertz, which are above normal human hearing range) that are transmitted into the body via a probe and record the waves that echo back.
As the waves bounce against the surface of the fetus, the sound waves are travelling different distances which causes the strength of their ‘echoes’ to vary. The light parts of an ultrasound image (known also as a sonogram) are basically ‘echoes’ that are stronger and louder whereas dark areas are ‘echoes’ that are softer and weaker.
Fun fact: Since sound waves actually don’t transmit well in the air, the gel used in ultrasounds is actually made in order to reduce the amount of air between the transducer and the patient’s skin in order to allow the soundwaves to penetrate more efficiently.
Why Did We Develop Ultrasound Technology?
Ultrasound machines (as we know them today) were developed in the 1950s, which is relatively recent. Before ultrasounds, there weren’t really any reliable methods to get an idea of the fetus’ health while it was developing.
This meant that pregnancy and childbirth were much more dangerous for both the mother and child since any issues would only be discovered if the mother started showing visible symptoms or after the child was born.
Sound waves had been studied since the 1700s and one of the biggest breakthroughs was in 1880 when Pierre Curie discovered how to produce ultrasonic sound waves using electricity.
After that, this technology was applied to serve a variety of functions including sonars. However, as technology improved, ultrasound technology was able to detect and produce more detailed visuals of surfaces.
The technology which led to the modern ultrasound machine actually was developed from a prototype that was meant to find flaws in the metal of ships. The first application of the ultrasound machine in a modern clinical setting was in 1956 in Glasgow, but it really only caught on and became popular in the 1970s and 80s.
It became widely used since it was non-invasive and seemed to have no harmful side effects to the mother or child. Additionally, it helped doctors to better understand the process of pregnancy and how a fetus grows in the womb and served as a way to detect problems early during the pregnancy.
Why Is Getting an Ultrasound So Important?
Knowledge is power, and the more information that you have about your body, the better you can make decisions related to it.
Other than the standard gender reveal and heartbeat, ultrasounds can detect a variety of things including any major physical anomalies in the developing fetus, the position that the fetus is in (and therefore whether a standard delivery is safe), the size, and gestational age of the fetus and much more.
Therefore, any health issues (or future health issues) can be identified early and you’ll be more prepared and well-informed when making a decision.
It also gives an obstetrician more information to develop a safe birth plan for their patient. For example, by knowing the position of the fetus, an obstetrician can advise a woman on whether to have a natural delivery or to have a C-section.
This is especially important if say the child is in a breech position (positioned such that the legs and body will be delivered before the head) since it actually can make a natural delivery much more dangerous for both the mother and child. Thus armed with this knowledge, an obstetrician may strongly encourage the mother to opt for a C-section.
Getting a sonogram image can be a wonderful and exciting experience, after all, who isn’t a little curious about what their child is going to look like? But more importantly, it can also give expecting mothers peace of mind to see that their child is developing in a healthy and normal way.
So find a trusted sonographer, make sure to get regular appointments, and watch the magic of life unfold before your eyes.