Well, is this not the proof that babies are not happy being assaulted with Ultrasound waves? Discovery Channel shows a video of a foetus crying in the womb during an Ultrasound exam.
Discovery Channel Video (sorry, I can't figure out how to put the video here!)
Honestly, it might just be that I'm struggling with the post-partum blues, but it made me cry to watch it. Seeing that tiny baby silently crying in reaction to the horrifying noise of the ultrasound....
Yet, still ultrasounds are treated with a cavalier attitude. No one warns new parents of the risks of ultrasound waves on their babies. Hell, its a rare thing to even find a medical professional that will admit that there is any repercussions to ultrasounds even thought many medical organizations are now warning that unnecessary ultrasounds should be avoided. I write further on this in my article Are They Safe? The Risks of Prenatal Ultra Sounds
The FDA warned in 2004: "ultrasound is a form of energy, and even at low levels, laboratory studies have shown it can produce physical effect in tissue, such as jarring vibrations and a rise in temperature." This is consistent with research conducted in 2001 in which an ultrasound transducer aimed directly at a miniature hydrophone placed in a woman's uterus recorded sound "as loud as a subway train coming into the station."
...a subway train coming into the station?! Is it any wonder that the baby was crying?!
Yet regardless of FDA (and other major medical associations) cautions about the use of ultrasounds, hundreds of thousands of expecting parents are still flocking to clinics and private ultrasound "stores" to have 3D videos and pictures taken of their babies in the womb, sometimes for as long as 45 minutes to an hour. To add to the cautions, there are no national or international standards for the output characteristics of ultrasound equipment. The result is the shocking situation described in a commentary in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, in which ultrasound machines in use on pregnant women range in output power from extremely high to extremely low, all with equal effect. The commentary reads, "If the machines with the lowest powers have been shown to be diagnostically adequate, how can one possibly justify exposing the patient to a dose 5,000 times greater?". It goes on to urge government guidelines on the output of ultrasound equipment and for legislation making it mandatory for equipment manufacturers to state the output characteristics.
...So we see a baby crying, but is anyone listening ?
