Obstetric ultrasound - Alona Wilson

The medical field has had many technological advances over the years. I am not concerned about talking about all the different technologies that have developed over the years or the many uses which technology has in the medical field. I am only interested right now in the technology behind obstetric ultrasonography.

Ian Donald, a Scottish physician, was one of the pioneers of ultrasound use in the medical field. It wasn’t until years later that ultrasound was used in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Obstetric ultrasound has had a significant impact on the development of diagnostic ultrasound technology.  Evidence indicates that diagnostic is safe for the unborn child which is different than radiography, which is used for x-rays. However, there have not been scientific tests done to confirm the safety of obstetric ultrasounds so they are not normally done unless deemed medically necessary.

Why am I interested in Obstetric ultrasound? The reason is because I recently found out that my daughter is pregnant with my first grandchild. I went to her doctor’s appointment the week before St. Patrick’s Day and saw my granddaughter in my daughter’s womb. It is amazing to see the life of an unborn child moving around inside the womb. You can make out all the features of the child, the fingers, the toes, the head, the stomach, and if you are lucky even the sex of the baby. The Doppler Sonography can be used to evaluate the beats of the fetal heart to check for abnormalities. When I observed my daughter’s ultrasound, it seemed like everything was okay without any trace of abnormalities.

The following pictures’ are of my daughter’s baby girl, Alona Wilson. Isn’t it amazing how that at just 17 and a half weeks you can tell what the sex of a baby is before she is born?

I have had ultrasounds myself before but never really new the history behind the technology so I did a little research to find out more about Obstetric ultrasound. Medical uses for ultrasound didn’t begin until about 1958 and not in obstetrics until 1963 or later. In the days when my parents and grandparents there was no such thing as obstetric ultrasound so you never knew the sex of the baby until he or she was born.

In our society today, some parents choose to find out the sex of the baby before birth and some parents choose to wait until after the baby is born. My daughter choice to find out prior to birth baby’s sex and we found out that the baby is a girl. I wanted the baby to be a girl, not just because girls can be a wonderfully blessing to a mother but also so later on she could realize the and understand everything which she put me through. That might seem mean but it was how I felt when I was praying for her baby to be a girl. The sneaking a boy or boys in and out of her bedroom window, the disrespect she showed towards me and how it hurt me. A child never understands the lessons that a parent is trying to teach them until they have a child of their own.

I just never wanted my daughter to get pregnant and have a child until after she had finished college and was self-sufficient. A parent’s dreams for their child or children are not always the dreams of the child. I know this wasn’t the dream I had for my daughter but this is the reality that my daughter has chosen. It is a reality that I cannot change but can only try to accept and pray for her and the life of my granddaughter, Alona Wilson.