Ultrasound

In the manner of hippies, Amish-people and the like, wifey and I decided not to have a routine ultrasound on Baby.
We decided that if anything seemed to be medically wrong with the pregnancy (me not feeling well, the baby not growing, bleedings etc) we would have a medical ultrasound to see how Baby was doing. Until then we would just have to wait and see what would unfold.
During these past 37 weeks, the only thing the midwife has come near Baby with is a Pinnard horn (as in the picture), her hands and a measuring tape.

The reason I thought of ultrasounds this morning was I stumbled across this on facebook;

"Think Ultrasound for Babies Is Safe?


Research shows ultrasound populations have a quadrupled perinatal death rate, increased rates of brain damage, dyslexia, speech delays, epilepsy, and learning difficulties.Perinatal death rate quadrupled in ultrasound group. (2,475 woman study by Davies et al., 1993); Midwifery Today.

1984 study shows ultrasound babies developed more dyslexia, and twice as often showed delayed speech of unknown causes. (Stark et al 1984); Midwifery Today; Effects of Frequent Ultrasound During Pregnancy: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Males who were subjected to ultrasound more likely to show signs of brain damage. Journal Epidemiology December 2001.

Ultrasound babies are more likely to develop epilepsy and learning difficulties. Ultrasound Abstracts.

Males babies exposed to two or more ultrasounds were 32% more likely to be lefthanded (which is thought to be caused by brain damage). Ultrasound Abstracts.

Four hours after ultrasound, cell death doubles and rate of cell division drops by 22% in mammals and researchers believe results same in humans. Ultrasound Abstracts.

Risk of miscarriage significantly increased among women who perform ultrasound more than 20 hours a week. (Taskinen et al., 1990); Midwifery Today.

Babies who had serious problems and were ultrasounded died more often than non-ultrasounded babies with serious problems. Midwifery Today

Ultrasounded babies who were growth retarded were three times more likely more likely to be admitted to ICU than non-ultrasounded babies who were growth restricted. Midwifery Today

Preterm labor more than doubled in ultrasounded women. (Lorenz et al., 1990); Midwifery Today

Researchers who developed ultrasound admitted possibility of hazard from ultrasound and said that it should never, ever be used on babies under three months. Midwifery Today

Cells exposed to single dose of ultrasound behave abnormally ten generations after insonation. Midwifery Today

Ultrasound affects fetal weight, organ weight, immune systems, and blood platelets which allow blood to clot; researches believe problems from ultrasound – including possibility of cancer, leukemia, and congenital malformations – could take as long as 20 years to surface. Ultrasound Abstracts; Effects of Frequent Ultrasound During Pregnancy: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Impaired brain function and decreased locomotor and exploratory activity in mice exposed to ultrasound. Effect of Fetal Exposure to Ultrasound on the Behavior of the Adult Mouse.

Ultrasound’s gaseous cavitation increases free radical production in amniotic fluid and blood plasma, and provides a likely mechanism for DNA damage. Crum et al (1987); Ellisman et al (1987)

Because babies’ heads are bowl shaped, radiation from ultrasound is magnified and can result in parts of the brain being subjected to extra high intensities of radiation. A Prudent Approach to Ultrasound Imaging of the Fetus and Newborn by Kenneth Taylor, M.D.

Even if the above stats don’t give you pause, how about the fact that ultrasound measures 100 decibels in utero – that’s the equivalent of having your infant stand on a subway platform as a train comes roaring in and screeches to a halt New Scientist. As one writer notes, if you’ve ever heard of on opera singer breaking a sheet of glass with her voice, that is an example of what just one slow sound wave can do . . . but ultrasound uses ultra high frequency sound waves which bombard the child at an extremely high rate of speed. New Scientist.

Perhaps most ironic and compelling is this quote from one of Yale’s MD elite (Dr. Kenneth Taylor, M.D., Professor of Diagnostic Radiology and Chief of the Ultrasound Section at Yale University School of Medicine) who states: “I would not let anybody get near my infant’s head with a transducer [ultrasound wand] . . .” A Prudent Approach to Ultrasound Imaging of the Fetus and Newborn by Kenneth Taylor, M.D."

Here's the link where you can go to the sources of the research articles; http://health.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978382100
(No, I still don't know how to create a link, I'm a lousy blogger, I know. I'm gonna ask wifey to help me figure it out. Until then, you will have to continue to copy-paste, dear reader).

And I again thought of our reasons for not having a routine ultrasound on Baby. I remember talking about it with the midwife on our first appointment. Actually it took up most of the time and might be the reason she forgot to mention the RH+/- screening we were doing but got no info about.

The conversation was very vague on her part, perhaps you are not allowed, as medical staff, to have any opinions.

Wifey asked the midwife if she had had ultrasounds performed on her children. She said she hadn't.

I thought of that time I accompanied an aquiantance to have laser eye surgery for her near-sightedness. And all the doctors and nurses at the clinic wore glasses themselves.
Go figure.

The midwife said (back in week 10) that we would have to wait until week 20-24 before we might be able to hear Babys heartbeats with a Pinnard horn. I figured waiting for a bit would be better than subjecting Baby to something uncomfortable; and potentially dangerous.

And since I could feel Baby in week 14 already, the waiting was even easier.
One of the doctors at work told me it was IMPOSSIBLE to feel a baby at week 14, especially when it's your first. She said if I really did feel something, I must be further along in pregnancy than I thought.
I reminded her that for me and wifey, there is only one Saturday in August conception could have taken place. So miscalculations were not very likely.
These doctors and their textbook cases...

The body is so much more complex, wise and communicative than can be measured, calculated and squeezed into a one-experience-fits-all.
I dared to trust Baby and her movements (atleast some of the time) even in week 14, and now there can be now doubt about it, as anyone who gets near her gets a kick in the head.

If you want to read up on ultrasound, I recommend this book;

It has an excellent chapter on ultrasounds, what research says about it, what potential risks and benefits there might be.

The final reasoning wifey and I had was; even if an ultrasound would show there might be something wrong with our baby, we would never consider terminating her life.
Interpreting an ultrasound is not as easy as it might seem. There are lots of babies born perfectly healthy where ultrasounds indicated otherwise. And the other way around; babies born with handicaps the ultrasound did not forsee.

A woman at my office actually was told her son might have a major heart condition after an ultrasound. She and her husband were devastated, but decided to try to ignore the ultrasound and carry on with the pregnancy.
She gave birth to a healthy boy who is now 5 yrs old and has never had any heart problems. It was probably just a blotch on the ultrasound screen, the hospital staff said.

I think there are a lot of valid reasons for having ultrasounds during a pregnancy, but none of them applied to us.
It would have been useless information, in the manner of all the fertility tests; Everything seems fine, lets look for a problem! Surprise; there ARE no problems. Or perhaps; there MIGHT be a problem, but since you don't want to have an abortion there is nothing else to do but wait and see if the baby is healty when she is born.

On a last note; if you check out the gynecological associations or here in Sweden; Svenska strålskyddsmyndigheten. You will see that NONE of them recommends routine ultrasounds, but rather just for medical purposes when the benefits outweigh the risks.
And really, these are the experts talking.
I rest my case.

Hello Blood Sugar!

Well, all that resting payed off, blood pressure was a bit lower (130/80) at yesterdays check up. However; enter from the left; blood sugar!
I've had excellent blood sugar all through pregnancy (around 4, w the upper limit of 9)and thought; well at least I don't have to worry about gestational diabetes.

Now all of the sudden I tested 9!!! The midwife was in disbelief and re-tested me; 9.8!

Ok. Sure, why not. Let's go down that road too. I'm such a regular at the maternity care by now, so let's throw something new into the mix.

Now I have to do the diabetes screening Monday morning; the one where you fast before and then drink some hideous sugary-solution and sit in the waiting room for 2 hrs before they test your sugar levels again.

I'm getting a bit tired of this... Does everyone have all these complications in pregnancy, or is it just my body that is lousy at being pregnant?

I try not to think about it too much. Baby will be here in just a few weeks at the most, and even IF my bloodsugar would go crazy now at the end, at least it's been great for most of the pregnancy.

I just want to enjoy these last few days/weeks of carrying Baby, without being worried and anxious all the time.

It could just be a one time thing I suppose, perhaps my blood sugar is fine. I'll try not to worry until I know for sure on Monday.

And the winner is...

It is nice to excell at something I suppose, even if it is just napping. Yesterday I broke my all time record with a 5 (F-I-V-E) hr afternoon nap. Still managed to get in a good 9 hrs sleep last night.

My blood pressure is still too high and I will have to continue to go on check ups. To be honest, I got some good rest but then had 2 nights of bad sleep and then wifey and I had a busy Sunday; cleaning the house, doing laundry, grocery shopping, sorting through baby clothes and cooking food for the freezer for after Babys arrival. I was so swollen and exhausted. So perhaps no surprise my blood pressure was not lower by Monday morning.
I was so tired at the midwifes office I could hardly talk. Then I went home and took my 5 hr nap.

After this, wifey and I have made some adjustments. Wifey sleeps in the livingroom so I won't get disturbed. I have the whole bed to myself and wake up in all sorts of weird positions. Obviously I move a lot while sleeping. Up-side-down is the only position I haven't woken up in, yet.
Wifey also has started to work from home to be here to make me feel better and to wait on me.
Yes I know. Marrying her is the best thing I've ever done. It does makes me more relaxed to have her around. Even if I'm constantly falling asleep.


I'm getting weary of obsessing about preeclampsia. Que sera, sera I say.
We have good health care in this country, if I would develop full blown preeclampsia and Baby has to be induced/ have an emergency c-section, at least she is big enough to be fine.
In just a couple of days she won't even be considered pre-term.

I will just keep on resting and napping and see what happens w the blood pressure. If my body wants to sleep, sleep is what it gets.
I found something quite curious though; I usually sleep for 4 hr periods, then I wake up for a short period, but have no trouble going back to sleep. I wonder if this is in any way linked to Babys sleep schedule? Will be interesting to see once she has arrived.

We talk about things after Baby's arrival; like when to have the Christening etc. Sometimes when we plan away I get all cold inside and think; what if something happens? What if Baby won't make it?
I have clearly developed an anxiety disorder since beginning w this baby business.

But perhaps it's just normal worry.

Week 37

We have now officially entered week 37. By the end of this week Baby will no longer be considered pre-term if she wants to arrive.

All my body is telling me to do is sleep and eat. So I do.

At the midwife's last week my blood pressure was higher, again. Despite of being on sick leave. Wifey and I did have a stressful week end and week. I slept badly for 2 days prior and forced myself to go to our last parent training class, despite of being so tired I was in tears.
I shouldn't have, I know.
But it is so hard to just let go of one's personality just because you're pregnant. I'm so used to keep on pushing myself, even when I'm exhausted.
Usually it works. But when pregnant, it doesn't.
So hopefully, it was what my body reacted to with the higher blood pressure. Now I'm put on bed rest until Monday and our next appointment.

If I get a headache or pain in my upper abdomen; I'm to go in to the hospital straight away so they can check my liver, kidneys, blood pressure, protein etc for pre-eclampsia.

The only headache I've felt is due to allergies I think. And the only pain in my abdomen is when I sit a certain way and (what I think is) Baby's bony little bottom (or knees) is poking my ribs.

Anyho, Baby is growing perfectly and is now above average (but within normal) on the curve. I am very happy about this since it means she's getting all the nutrition and oxygen she needs, despite of her birth mamas fatigue.

I might be crazy, but I have no fear what so ever of birthing a big baby. I must thank Ina May Gaskin's book on childbirth for this.

My iron levels were slightly up, eventhough my digestive system can't handle eating iron supplements every day. So, except for the blood pressure, everything seems to be moving in the right direction.

Baby thinks she is Houdini and is practicing what seems to be a promising career in escapologism. However, my body is still big enough for both of us and for her new career move, so I'm not going to complain.

I love carrying her under my heart. And the best part of her still being inside me is that I get to sleep for long periods of time and that I don't have to worry about her being fed, warm and comfortable.

The Donor; How we chose Baby's genetic background

There are probably as many different ways of chosing a donor as there are donor families. Wifey and I had initially perhaps a bit different stand points. I was worried about denying the child a biological father (though there are many historical examples of things working out despite of this factor, e.g. Jesus Christ). And wifey was worried about having a man in our life that could have any kind of claim on our child.

After discussing back and forth we started going through our circle of friends to see if there was anyone who could fit the bill of being a known donor to our child.

But with a decision like that comes new potential difficulties.

Most of our male friends are straight and have, or will have, families of their own. How would this affect our child? To have a donor who was not really a father to our child, but a father to "his own" children.

Wouldn't this make our child feel left out, different and rejected?

It would also be weird to have a child with your spouse and see a friends features, mannerisms or personality shine through.

The pros of the "friend-donor" is that you know your child's biological origin, there is a reliable source (that you like) and if you would need any genetic/biological information down the road, you can just pick up the phone.

You would also know what (if any) half-siblings your child would have. And would not have to have 30+ unknown half-siblings all over the world, or even a few in your own neighbourhood.

I suppose that is not the end of the world. Before contraception was introduced, most people probably had a bunch of un-known half-siblings all over the place.

Also we would have had the comfort of trying to make a baby (inseminate) in our own bedroom like normal people. And fresh sperm is more viable and easier to concieve with than frozen goods. (In Sweden only University hospitals are allowed to handel frozen semen, so there is no way to do home inseminations with a donor from a sperm bank).

But one of my biggest concern about having a friend as a donor, was that you never know how you are going to react to creating a biological child.
What if the man in question falls in love with the baby and want to be a part of the babys life?
How can you say no to that?
No matter what you agreed, what legal contacts you've signed, who can anticipate what you will feel when you see your biological child in front of you? The heart wants what the heart wants. And I could never refuse our child and our donor a relationship, eventhough it's not what wifey and I would prefer.

Wifey and I made lists of what was important to us in chosing a donor. Extensive background information was vital. Getting to chose ourselves was also important to us. Most people actually chose who the have a child by.
Why should it be any different for us just because the man won't be a father figure in our childs life?

If I can't have a biological baby with the person I'm in love with, atleast I can chose some other genetics. Or atleast a donor who is not allergic and does not have astma (which runs in my family).

But I think the most important thing to me was that the donor seemed to be a kind and caring human being. That was actually more important than him having similar looks to wifey's.

All the donor profiles who described themselves as "arrogant", "wanting to populate the world" or where you genereally could read between the lines some difficulties interacting with other people were a No-Go.

Since I am the one carrying the baby and Baby will have 50% of my genetics, wifey's input about the donor was more important than mine for me.
We eventually ended up chosing a donor we both fancied but that especially wifey felt connected to.
The donor and wifey work in the same field and wifey liked the way he described himself and his outlook on life.
I especially liked the description of him by others, and also the considerate, kind and caring nature he seemed to have in dealing with relationships in his life.


But I must confess, had it been entirely up to me, I might have been tempted to chose one of the donors with obvious music talent.

Still, I am super happy with our choice. I wish the donor would have had the same eye and hair color as wifey. But oh well. Now that Baby exist, I would have it no other way. That would be to change Baby, which would be impossible since I love her exactly as she is.

Other things we considered in chosing a donor was; that the donor had concieved a child earlier (which meant that the stuff was actually working)and high motility in sperm count (more frisky swimmers means better chances to concieve and less attempts which will be cheaper in the long run).

For more information if you want to plan your conception I can recommend this book;



It is a bit tideous to read, a bit new age, and there is an entire section on how to "befriend" the sperm (ok...). And I am a bit upset that a book on 500+ pages on chosing a donor and conception fails to mention the Rh +/- factor.
Still, if you are a control freak there is a lot of good reading about things to consider in chosing a donor.
The Maia clinic is a clinic with high sucess rate in pregnancies for mothers that have a hard time concieving, so I thought all their tips were worth considering, though I didn't use (live up to) all of them.

I also recommend this book for concieving;



It's a book directed at heterosexuals concieving. Still it is very good info about your fertility and your body.
I actually didn't chart according to the book etc. But I still thought it was helpful and interesting.

Well, that was a little about how we chose baby's genetics.

I know a lot of people who have chosen to know as little as possible about the donor and even let the clinic chose for them.
And, as I've said in earlier posts, if you chose to inseminate in Sweden, you get no choice.
The women I talked to who doesn't want to chose says they don't want to see the donor in their child. If for example they know the donor is a fire fighter, they don't want to look at the child seeing fire fighting traits.

I don't really understand the resoning behind that. (Since I work in a field closely related to genetics and as far as I know no fire fighter gene has yet been discovered).

My thinking, if our donor had been a fire fighter, is that the donor is a person who enjoy a physcially challenging profession (and perhaps has a high activity level), has a profession where he will help others and subjects himself to danger. I would not freak out if Baby enjoyed playing with the garden hose, thinking that she was genetically destined to become a fire fighter.

But, to each her own. And I really respect people who think genetics doesn't matter at all.

All I want is the ability to chose what fits your family and not be restricted by society and having to go to another country to get to chose a donor for your baby, if that matters to you. It did to us.

Waiting for the nutty feeling

According to one of the zillion internet pages that gives you weekly pregnancy updates, Baby should drop soon.
The dropping should feel like, I quote, "having a coconut between your legs".
Doesn't sound very comfy, does it?

At the midwife appointments Baby has always been with her head downwards, though with her back alternatley left and right. Since she's not fixated yet, I suppose she could still turn on us and go breach. However, I have a feeling she won't.

I also have a feeling she will not come early, but stay put for atleast 4-5 more weeks. It might be wishful thinking more than intuition; I'm just desperate for some more sleeping in before she actually enters the scene.

Last week I had a bunch of weird sensations, I was unsure if perhaps I was leaking amnionic fluids and if my pelvic pains might have been early contractions. Wifey called the hospital and I had to answer a long row of questions from a very serious sounding midwife.
She asked solemnly if I had felt the baby move the past 24 hrs, adding that it can be very difficult to feel the baby this far along in the pregnancy. I think she added this to comfort me, incase I couldn't feel Baby.
But before the lady finished her questions, Baby managed the trick of kicking me in 2 places at the same time and do a mini hick-up session.

So glad I don't have to worry about that.

I felt rather silly about the whole conversation, I wasn't really worried. But did it since wifey wanted to do the "better safe than sorry" routin. I wasn't expected to be taken so seriously at the hospital.
But oh well, I actually am in week 35+1. This is perhaps the time to be taken seriously. And of course I am grateful they take you seriously rather than brush you aside as the hysterical person you feel like.

I also think I was a bit spooked about the last visit at the doctor's where he asked me in detail about my early contractions and saying things like "as long as your cervic isn't starting to open up".

However, from reading all my lovely natural childbirth/home birth blogs and web sites, I've come to understand that your cervic can actually open and stay open a couple of cm for weeks before you go into actual labor.
So I've quit obsessing about that one.

I am huge, but actually don't feel as uncomfortable as I thought I would this far along in pregnancy. I don't have a problem breathing or keeping food down, as I've heard other mothers-to-be complain about. Finally it pays off to have a long torso!

I actually manage to take a walk in the country side yesterday w wifey. My pelvis ligaments were super sensitive the rest of the day, but it was worth it!
The pollen is starting to bloom now, so it might have been my last enjoyable fresh-air walk for some time.

I'm still a bit reluctant about eating anti-histamines while pregnant. The research is so poorly and you don't really know how it affects the baby (surprise!).
But I will go with the general guidelines I suppose and eat it to keep my astma in check. I am still glad that Baby is basically fully grown and not a tiny embryo now that I'm gonna bombard her with meds.

It might not be worse than all the crap I subjected her to this past weekend. We celebrated wifeys birthday with her relatives, and started early on the Easter candy.

Hope all that sugar, artificial coloring and preservatives haven't left Baby with permanent brain damage.