Fear-based medicine and babies

I am struck by a medical system which causes so much panic over things like camembert and salami and yet is so cavalier about ultrasounds and drugs in pregnancy and labour.

If fear-based medicine did not terrify women so much they could do the research and make up their own minds about what they eat and to what their babies are subjected. We live in hope.

Excerpt: Is ultrasound technology safe?

The simple answer is that the safety of using any ultrasound technology on pregnant mamas and babies has never been clearly established. In other words, no one can say for certain that it is safe to use ultrasound equipment on pregnant women and their babies. Additionally, there is no evidence that routine use of ultrasound in low-risk pregnancies improves outcomes for either mother or baby.

What are the risks?

The ultrasound beam can and does cause a temperature increase in the tissue where the ultrasound beam is aimed, and in pregnancy the beam happens to be aimed at your baby. No studies have been done to ascertain how much of a temperature shift occurs when used on babies in the womb. There is also the concern that the high frequency sound waves may interfere with the loosely developed embryo through a cavitation process where small pockets of gas in mammalian tissues vibrate and then collapse.

http://www.indiebirth.com/understanding-ultrasound/