The Having a Baby in Queensland Book Dec 2010 v1.0

What is anultrasoundscan?Why might a firsttrimester ultrasoundscan be offered?An ultrasound scan is when a midwife, a doctor or a sonographer(a person trained to do ultrasound scans) uses a transducer (asmall handheld device) to create a picture of a woman’s uterusand baby during pregnancy.The transducer is usually moved across the woman’s abdomen(stomach) and sends out soundwaves to create the picture of theuterus and baby on a computer screen. This type of ultrasoundscan is also called a transabdominal ultrasound scan.Another type of ultrasound scan is a transvaginal ultrasound scan.A transvaginal ultrasound scan is when a midwife, a doctor or asonographer inserts a long and narrow transducer into a woman’svagina to do the ultrasound scan. This type of ultrasound scanallows your care provider to get closer to the uterus and may beused to get a clearer picture of the uterus and baby.Ultrasound scans can be 2-D (two-dimensional), 3-D (threedimensional),or 4-D (four-dimensional). A 2-D ultrasound scangives a still black and white picture showing the outline of thebaby in the woman’s uterus. A 3-D ultrasound scan gives a stillbrown picture showing the baby in the woman’s uterus in threedimensions. A 4-D ultrasound scan gives a moving brown pictureshowing the baby in the woman’s uterus in three dimensions.A first trimester ultrasound scan creates a picture of the pregnantwoman’s uterus and baby that can give the woman and her careprovider information about her pregnancy.First trimester ultrasound scans don’t always provide informationthat is accurate. The accuracy of the information from the ultrasoundscan depends on different things including the timing of the scan, theposition of the baby, the skill of the person who does the ultrasoundscan, and the skill of the person who looks at the pictures from theultrasound scan and prepares the report on the results [1,2].The most common types of information that can be found out from afirst trimester ultrasound scan are explained below. Different womenlike to know different things about their pregnancies and somewomen prefer to not know any of these things. For each type ofinformation given, we have included space for you to tick whetherthe information is important to you. Ticking these boxes might helpyou to make decisions about whether to not have, or have a firsttrimester ultrasound scan. If you choose to have a first trimesterultrasound scan ticking these boxes might also help you to makedecisions about what information to find out from the ultrasound scan.Ultrasound scans can be done at different times in pregnancy—during the first trimester (up to 14 weeks of pregnancy), duringthe second trimester (from 14 weeks to 26 weeks of pregnancy),or during the third trimester of pregnancy (from 26 weeks ofpregnancy onwards). This decision aid is about ultrasounds doneduring the first trimester.35