Diagnostic Medical Sonography Schools

 Pregnancy is a time when you need to relax and just enjoy the sensation of becoming a mother. So I don’t mean to be a scaremonger and frighten you with these facts. But there are times when we need to be careful and when a visit to the doctor cannot hurt, especially if you’re in too much pain or discomfort. Some people may dismiss you as a hypochondriac, but there’s no such thing as being too cautious when it comes to your baby’s health and well-being. So if you’re pregnant, and if you feel any of the below symptoms, it means you need to call your doctor at once and get yourself checked out:

• Spotting or bleeding: When you’re pregnant, you don’t expect to experience your monthly period, so a little blood in your underwear is definitely a cause for concern. It may be as mild as the embryo implanting itself in your uterus or as complicated as a possible miscarriage. So it’s best to consult your OBGYN immediately and do exactly as he/she asks you to. Sometimes, bleeding with severe cramps and pain on one side of your abdomen may be a sign of an ectopic pregnancy where the baby forms in your Fallopian tube instead of your uterus. You must rush to the hospital immediately if you even suspect this to be the case because ectopic pregnancies, if not treated immediately, can cause severe internal bleeding and subsequent loss of life.
• Pain or a burning sensation during urination: If you feel a burning sensation or any kind of pain when you urinate and/or is your urine gives off a strong odor, you may be suffering from a urinary tract infection. You must contact your healthcare provider if this is the case, because, if left untreated, these infections could cause permanent damage to your kidneys.
• Constant thirst and the frequent need to urinate: If you feel constantly hungry, extremely thirsty, tired, and find yourself running to the bathroom once too often, you may be suffering from gestational diabetes. When a woman is pregnant, her body needs to produce double the amount of insulin that it normally does, and this becomes a problem for some women who are not able to do so. So they become diabetic, a condition that’s induced by pregnancy. If you experience these signs, call your doctor immediately and get yourself tested.  
• A persistent headache: If you have a constant headache and feel faint all the time, you may be suffering from pre-eclampsia, a complication of pregnancy where the mother’s blood pressure shoots up to abnormal levels. You must get in touch with your doctor immediately and/or get yourself rushed to the nearest hospital.
• Itchiness: If you find yourself scratching your arms, legs torso, palms and soles, you need to call your OBGYN and fix an immediate appointment. Your liver may be at risk if you don’t have a rash where you itch and if your stools are pale in color and you don’t feel as energetic as you usually do.

If we were to try and analyze ethics in the field of medicine, it would be akin to walking on a minefield strewn with unexploded bombs at random locations. Most topics are extremely sensitive and evoke strong reactions, both for and against them.

A recent news item about the Pope refusing to sanction the use of condoms for Roman Catholics and adhering firmly to the belief that only abstinence could prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS caused quite a stir in the media, with even people belonging to the Church questioning the finality of this decision.

And then we have those who believe that abortion is a mortal sin, as is euthanasia. In my book, the ultimate decision lies with the patient, the one who is going to be the most affected by outcome of saying yes or no to the procedure. So a terminally ill patient has the moral right to seek a mercy killing rather than suffer like hell and still die in a few months; a man or woman has the right to choose to insist on a condom when indulging in sexual relations if they suspect or know that the other person is suffering from a contagious disease, especially one that could prove fatal, and a mother has the right to decide whether to carry her unborn fetus to full term or abort it, depending on her financial, emotional and physical situation.

And that is where ultrasound comes into the picture, in helping a woman make up her mind as to whether to keep her baby or not. An ultrasound is a painless, comfortable and relatively inexpensive method of determining how well the fetus is growing inside the uterus, how old it is and how healthy the mother’s placenta is. It is also capable of determining any congenital abnormalities like Down’s syndrome (along with a few more blood tests), the results of which can be used by the mother to decide whether or not to carry the baby to term or abort the fetus.

When we empower the patient and allow them to make their own decisions, we’re left with fewer problems in society. A woman who is unable to provide for her child is better off aborting the fetus rather than giving birth to a child who grows up and takes to the seamier side of life in order to survive. A woman who knows her fetus has a congenital abnormality is entitled to decide on an abortion if she knows that she has neither the money nor the capability to provide the lifelong care that the disabled child needs. And a woman who knows that she is carrying multiple fetuses is well within her rights to decide on selective termination so that she is able to provide well for the baby (babies) that are left.

Ultrasound gives women this kind of empowerment, which is why it is a boon for those who need to take a decision based on accurate results of the fetus and its normalcy or lack of it. One instance where an ultrasound cannot and must not be used to take a decision on medical termination of the pregnancy is during the selection of the sex of the baby. There are instances of couples and families in certain countries like China and India clamoring for male children and so aborting female fetuses. This leads to distorted sex ratios, with males outnumbering females and causing an imbalance of nature. Although there’s a law against revealing the sex of the unborn fetus in these countries, this practice still continues, especially in rural parts of the countries.