TARA MULLOWNEY
The Telegram /NL

I’ll admit, since I’ve been pregnant with my first baby, I’ve turned into the type of expectant mother I swore I’d never be.

For me, along with morning sickness (read: morning, noon and night sickness) and bloating came an innate obsession with all things maternity. I use “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” as more of a manifesto than a reference book. If there was a website at www.ihavetostopbuyingbabystuff.com, I’d need to check it out. I want to know everything possible about my baby and its development at every stage. If I could install a little two-way mirror in my belly so I could peek in at the baby (whom we’re calling Bean at this point, since we haven’t picked a name yet), I probably would.

A few weeks ago I did the next best thing: I booked an appointment at UC Baby.
My family doctor told me about the new 3D ultrasound business back in December. The UC Baby franchise has 18 locations across the country, and provides ultrasounds not for medical or diagnostic purposes, but for expectant parents who want to have a look at their baby in the womb.

The local franchise is owned and operated by Sarah Boone, a trained diagnostic imaging technologist who once worked with Eastern Health. Boone prefers to work as an ultrasound technologist instead of an X-ray technologist, and particularly likes working with expectant mommies and their babies. She opened her business at Campbell Avenue in St. John’s last September.

Focused sound

According to Health Canada, fetal ultrasounds create images of the baby in the womb by using short bursts of sound waves that travel through the body in a series of focused beams. Echoes from the beams are converted into real-time images that show the unborn baby’s movement, internal organs, heartbeat and even blood flow.

While the 2D diagnostic ultrasounds required by doctors and performed in the hospital are obviously necessary, they don’t show the untrained eye the surface detail that 3D ultrasounds show. With 3D, expectant parents can see and decipher clear images of their baby, including facial features.

Though Boone’s prices start at $175, my partner, Ian, and I chose the $299 option — which includes two ultrasounds, about 10 weeks apart, about 40 pictures of the baby on CD at each visit, two printed photos at each visit, and the ability to listen to the baby’s heartbeat. Gender determination and a podcast — so family members and friends not present can watch live online — are free options.
Ian and I chose to pay an extra $25 to have the ultrasounds recorded in 4D (the fourth dimension being movement) on two DVDs.
We opted out of buying the cute teddy bear that comes implanted with a recording of our baby’s heartbeat. For now.

Unlike in a hospital, you can bring your entire family with you to see your UC Baby ultrasound. We brought our parents — Bean’s four grandparents — to witness the first portrait session.
The office isn’t a clinic. The waiting room is a cozy living room-type space, with carpet, vases of flowers and a fireplace. The actual ultrasound room is even more impressive — while it has the standard table and ultrasound equipment on one side, the room also features a large white leather sofa and armchair, and a huge flatscreen TV, for your family’s viewing pleasure.
“All we need is popcorn, and we’ve got a great Saturday afternoon matinee,” my dad remarked.

Gorgeous black and white photographs of tiny babies by central Newfoundland photographer Dawn Oldford adorn one wall and add to the cozy feel of the room.

Flicking the switch

Once everyone was comfortably seated (and I had assumed the standard lying-down-on-the-table, belly-covered-in-jelly pose), Boone turned on the machine and started the session with a look at the baby in 2D.
To anyone not trained, the 2D ultrasound images look gray and blurry. You can make out the head, spine, hands and legs and see the heart beating away, but the pictures are more for doctors.

To the average parent-to-be, the ultrasound shows only the skull, and not the real face, so the baby looks like an alien with gigantic eye sockets — a cute little alien, but very extra-terrestrial-like, all the same.

When Boone flicked the 3D switch, Bean appeared. You could see the eyes (although at this point, the eyelids are still fused shut — I know this from reading the manifesto), the lips, and the little bum. We watched the baby rub its eye, stick out its tongue, play with the umbilical cord and snuggle in towards my back.
Ian’s father, who had never seen an ultrasound of any type, took off his glasses and leaned towards the TV screen to count the fingers and toes, which were clearly visible (a perfect 10 each).

“I’ve seen babies sucking on their toes, grabbing at their feet, hands completely up on the head, or right underneath the bum. Really cute things,” Boone said.
“I’d say with half the babies, we see yawning. They don’t actually shed tears, but I’ve seen expressions that looking like crying, frowning, or anger, almost.”
Although we already had a good idea of Bean’s gender from the diagnostic ultrasound, we asked Boone if she could confirm it for us in 3D. Bean co-operated, and we saw, on the big screen, further proof of what we’d been told at the hospital.
After that, Bean wouldn’t show us its face anymore, turning so we could only see its side, and covering its face with its hand.
“The baby is embarrassed,” my dad joked. “It’s afraid you’re going to put the gender pictures on Facebook!”
“That won’t be happening,” Ian, already a protective dad, quickly responded with a chuckle and a shake of his head.

Impact

The most incredible thing about the 3D ultrasound is that we could clearly see Bean’s features, and when I say clearly, I mean we know already, at about six months’ pregnant, that the baby has my nose and chin, its father’s long legs, and long fingers like the both of us.
Leaving the UC Baby office, after making the appointment for the second ultrasound — and with a bag full of goodies, including the CD and DVD, coupons, diaper rash cream and a baby bottle — I considered in amazement that Bean was no longer a “thing” in my tummy, but an actual person.

Seeing the 3D images of my baby made me want to eat more veggies, and Boone later told me studies have shown that many women take better care of themselves after having the 3D ultrasound.

“It’s no wonder parents today are so connected to their children,” remarked Ian’s mother.
“You can know everything about them before they’re born.”
After seeing the ultrasound images, most people feel a bond with their baby, whether or not they know the gender, Boone said.

“One of my first clients, the father, said as he was leaving, ‘I did not feel like I was going to be a dad until now,’” she said. “I think for the dads, they don’t get to feel the movement, so it’s a good way to get them involved.”

As The Telegram reported in 2008, Health Canada issued a notice in 2003 recommending that parents not expose their unborn babies to fetal ultrasound simply for keepsake purposes. Ultrasounds should only be done based on a doctor’s referral, and only “when the expected medical benefits outweigh any foreseeable risk,” the notice said.

However, it acknowledged the millions of ultrasounds that have been done with “no confirmed health risks for the baby or the mother.”

Health Canada hasn’t issued any other notices about elective fetal ultrasounds.
In 1996, the Canadian Association of Radiologists issued a statement about fetal ultrasounds, saying it was concerned the operators of the equipment might not be equipped to recognize fetal and placental abnormalities.

This is one reason why Boone accepts clients only after they’ve had their 20-week anatomy ultrasound at the hospital, and requires all expectant mothers to fill out a form, giving their obstetrician and family doctor’s name and phone number before they have the 3D ultrasound. If she detects anything out of the ordinary on the ultrasound, she will contact the doctor right away.

“That’s very rare, though, because if there are any abnormalities present, they should have been detected at the 20-week ultrasound,” she said.

Many of Boone’s clients come to the clinic after having been told about the service by their doctor. She sees about 20 new clients a week.

“In my personal opinion, they would not be doing the ultrasounds as freely in the hospitals as they do if they thought it was dangerous,” Boone said.

“There are high-risk pregnancies that require ultrasounds weekly, and if they thought there was a risk involved, they wouldn’t perform them as freely as they do.

“There is equipment in the hospitals that can produce 3D images, and they often just turn it on for some of their patients. It’s not like an X-ray — which is actually ionizing radiation and is completely different; it’s dangerous, it’s harmful — and no one would recommend that a pregnant woman be exposed to ionized radiation.

“My family doctor, as soon as she found out I had this business, said, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t wait to tell my patients.’”

The 3D ultrasound was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. I’ve shared the pictures with my friends and made copies of the DVD for Bean’s grandparents. Like the baby-obsessed preggo that I am, I sometimes look at them before I go to bed, say a prayer for Bean’s safe arrival, and let the baby know that whatever it’s planning to throw at me next — whether perpetual heartburn, 20 more pounds or a 40-hour labour — it would all be worth it.