Sonograms

Taro listens to the baby's heartbeat at one of our last pre-natal visits with my midwife, before the home birth of J, in 2007. Photo by Liz Rubincam.

Fact: Taro and I chose not to have any sonograms during either of my pregnancies. I had many reasons to avoid this procedure, not least among them that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Family Physicians and other medical organizations advise against the routine use of ultrasound in pregnancy.

Today I ran across an excellent piece on the subject, via my Facebook friend, Emma Kwasnica. Ultrasound and Fury: One Woman's Ordeal is a must-read. It touches on the many complicated medical, philosophical, ethical, and cultural issues surrounding this increasingly popular proceedure. An excerpt:

"women should be entitled to have ultrasound and other prenatal tests, but...the process of informed consent must be taken far more seriously than it currently is. Women should be told in detail of the limitations of screening, and of the fact that clinical studies show no benefit to scanning during a normal pregnancy"

Read it. And tell me, what are your thoughts?