Interpret our baby's ultrasound

April 7, 2009 9:43 AM

I received an ultrasound photo of my baby at my last visit to the obstetrician, but no one explained the photo to me. Can you interpret it?

Specifically, we're interested in locating the eye/eyes and arms.

Why, oh why didn't they explain it to us?

At least we know (with 90% certainty) that it's a boy!

posted by k8to to health & fitness (24 comments total)

It would probably help to include a link to the photo. Here it is!
posted by k8to at 9:45 AM on April 7

Totally amateur ultra-sound interpreter here, but from what I've learned cooing over friends' ultrasound pics:

- Baby is facing down, head to the left.

- That brighter white line on top is his spine.

- His eye (only one is visible) is the darker spot behind the kind of white swirl (his skull).

- His legs are, well, where legs would be; look kind of froggy at this stage!

- His arms aren't developed enough to see clearly, but they are where arms would be. Near his head it's *possible* that you can see his right hand peeking out from the other side.

Congratulations!
posted by charmcityblues at 9:51 AM on April 7 [1 favorite]

According to the name on the top left, you baby's name is "Bun"
posted by joelf at 9:52 AM on April 7 [6 favorites]

IANAD, but I do have two children, and - while it's easier to make these things out when you can get a little more info (when they move the ultrasound device around, you can see where the limbs are, for instance) - it looks like the following:

There are two circles/ovals. The left one is the head. The bottom area of this circle is bright white; that's the side-view of the front of the skull.

The right oval is the torso. The top line of the torso oval is the spine. The head is looking down. If you turn the image 90 degrees clockwise, the baby would be looking to the right. In front of the baby's face is one fist; it look like he/she is sucking his/her thumb.

You can't really see much of the arms and legs, probably because this particular image takes a cross-section of the baby right down the spine, so the limbs don't appear.

Again, I'm no expert at this, but I think that's what's on the image. Congrats on your baby!
posted by nushustu at 9:54 AM on April 7

mushustu and charmcityblues nailed it, except that if you turned the image 90 degrees clockwise, the baby would be facing left. It sure does look like he's got one fist in from of his face.

Also, congratulations. You are having the most beautiful baby ever.
posted by not that girl at 9:57 AM on April 7

As a caveat in looking at single frames of an ultrasound, remember that it is a video technology, so the things you want to see were quite likely visible in other frames on the tape (or disc, nowadays) but there were probably no frames with everything visible, as an ultrasound is a two-dimensional slice through whatever is being examined. If you ask your sonographer at the next visit to show you arms, legs and so on, most are happy to do so.

Congratulations!
posted by TedW at 10:01 AM on April 7

Oh. Yeah. The baby would be facing LEFT, not right. If you turned it clockwise. My mistake.
posted by nushustu at 10:29 AM on April 7

joelf: it's a bun in the oven.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 10:32 AM on April 7

Also, may I just say that this is your baby, and you (or your insurance company, for which you pay for services) pays the doctors every time you visit. If the doctor or one of her assistants hands you a photo and you can't make it out, you should ask them to explain it. Never ever fear that you're taking up their time or bothering them. They are there to serve YOU. If they don't feel that way, feel free to find another doctor. There's only about fifty zillion of them in this country.
posted by nushustu at 10:34 AM on April 7 [2 favorites]

Congrats! Soon you will be an expert at looking at these grainy images.

TedW is right. the sonogram shows you just a shallow slice at any given time. This is the reason that you can't really see the arms in this shot. The arms are out of focus, except for a little bit of the arm and hand in front of the face. Watching a video where the focus depth changes makes things much easier to visualize.

You may want to ask about getting video. Our doctor was happy to record the entire sonogram visit onto a blank VHS tape that we brought with us, but we had to ask. We then digitized the video and put it on our website. Here's an ultrasound video that we uploaded for far away relatives while my wife was pregnant.
posted by mattybonez at 10:50 AM on April 7

Just noticed -- there's even a little tape icon on your picture, just like in our sonograms. They should totally be able to record the video for you!
posted by mattybonez at 10:53 AM on April 7

You don't say how many weeks gestation. It gets more clear later if you have more ultrasounds. Bone shows up pretty well; you can see that the spine is clearly visible.
posted by theora55 at 10:54 AM on April 7

Oooh, that's a good one! I'd second that baby bun is sucking its (his?) thumb. With my triplets, I had a ton of in-depth ultrasounds, so I got really good at reading them.

Congrats!
posted by pyjammy at 10:55 AM on April 7

Seconding thumbsucker. Definitely has hand in front of face.

The dark spot in the head isn't an eye; probably brain. The eye would be right about where the white swirl curls back up and in above the hand.

Remember that this isn't 3D. This is a "slice" through your kid, like the images you get out of an MRI scan. It's hard to make sense of it because you're used to seeing the outside, not a cross-section. Me, I taught comparative anatomy and developmental bio, so I'm pretty used to seeing things in slices. However, I can tell you from experience that it's more fun to look at your own kid than a slice of a chicken embryo.

Congrats on the (90%) boy! Mrs. Frogs and I are expecting our own boy in May, so we've been staring at ultrasounds too - I know how blurry and confusing the things can be!
posted by caution live frogs at 11:05 AM on April 7

The baby is at 12 weeks gestation in this photo.

Bun is not his first name, although it would certainly be unique. The ultrasound was taken as part of a Bun Test, a test for signs of genetic problems like Down's Syndrome and Trisomy 18. We haven't had any results yet, but the technician said the baby looked perfectly normal.

The technician did explain what was on the screen to us, but the screen and the picture didn't look as similar as I suspected it would. My fiance was able to see much more during the exam as he was sitting behind the technician. Laying on the table, I was only shown the screen for a relatively short time. I asked my doctor about the photo in the exam later. He took a quick glance and said the three dark spots on the head were the eyes and nose, but we don't believe it.
posted by k8to at 11:10 AM on April 7

mattybonez, your video is AMAZING! Thanks for the tip, I'm definitely going to ask about bringing a tape or CD in for the next one. I could have avoided all the jealousy I felt when Big D got to see everything and I just saw one shot. Very, very cool.

Also, your baby is incredibly adorable. Thanks for sharing!
posted by k8to at 11:17 AM on April 7

Don''t feel like it's unusual, my wife never really could make out what was being shown on the sonograms. We went and had a 3D one done. THAT she understood. It was pretty cool seeing his little face 3 months before his delivery. That and we got a DVD video of the entire session. It made a good in-laws present too. Most insurance won't cover the 3D scan but for us it was worth the $300 or so.

As for the sonogram tech, I'm not sure they're supposed to have all that much to say about what's on the screen. Being that there might be issues and talking about them, or not, would raise liability issues.

It might seem like forever, but he'll be here before you know it. And then the REAL adventures begin...
posted by wkearney99 at 11:44 AM on April 7

Oh, don't go start buying blue stuff just yet. 12 weeks is pretty early for a definitive gender guess. Even at 16 weeks, our doctor and u/s tech weren't positive what we were having, and they were all three boys.

Just saying. :)
posted by pyjammy at 11:57 AM on April 7

The fetus appears to be in profile, so here it is with landmarks. And yes, they all look like aliens.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:29 PM on April 7

are you 90% sure it's a boy from looking at the ultrasound or because you have been told it's a boy?
posted by Frasermoo at 12:58 PM on April 7

Here's how I see it.
posted by bonobothegreat at 1:39 PM on April 7 [13 favorites]

Wow, bonobothegreat! Nice presentation!

And Frasermoo, the technician asked us if we'd like to know the sex of the baby because he felt he could call it with 90% certainty. We do want to know, so we said yes. I realize it is quite early to be able to identify the sex of the baby, but the father, the Big D, isn't called that for nothing so we figured it is possible.
posted by k8to at 7:54 PM on April 7

We are not going to be buying anything for the baby, especially anything sex-specific until we are farther along and have had additional confirmation of its sex.
posted by k8to at 7:56 PM on April 7

Hi similarly named person.

Beware of the 3D ultrasound. They're expensive and you may not see anything. The only bonus for us was that Daddy perhaps connected to the kiddo a bit more.

Looking back, the 3Ds do look like our kid now tho!

These are our 3Ds.
posted by k8t at 10:05 PM on April 7