The Birth Lounge Blog

Things that F*ck Up your Birth Plan LATE PREGNANCY ULTRASOUNDS Ultrasounds are a ‘normal’ part of pregnancy if you ask any American woman—BUT if we look at the science behind them, you might be surprised at what you find… While you may enjoy seeing your baby, it’s worth discussing the risks before saying ‘yes’ to any and all ultrasounds and scans. Pregnant people routinely go through a number of ultrasounds during pregnancy.  Most commonly: - 11-14 weeks to confirm pregnancy - 18-22 weeks to confirm anatomy is looking normal - 35-38 weeks which is known as the growth scan (we check the ‘size of baby’ and baby’s position) I put ’size of baby’ in quotations because the accuracy of ultrasounds is so laughable that it’s ridiculous to lead anyone to ever believe we could accurately predict the size of a baby that way. Ultrasounds also get less and less accurate as the baby grows. However, there are risks with late-pregnancy ultrasounds and some are severe like misdiagnosis, unnecessar...

What Does Low Amniotic Fluid Really Mean? Recently a client brought up low amniotic fluid concerns after a prenatal appointment. After a deep dive into this with them, we thought we'd circle back to our community here and chat low amniotic fluid (Otherwise known as: Oligohydramnios) and inductions. The standard practice in the U.S is to jump to induction if a full term mother experiencing an otherwise normal pregnancy is reported to have low amniotic fluid. You know we are all about the facts here, so let's dig in. Is low amniotic fluid a valid reason for induction? 'A recent review of the literature (Rossi & Prefumo 2013) found that in term or post-term pregnancies oligohydramnios (with an otherwise healthy pregnancy/baby) was not associated with poor outcomes . However, it was associated with increased risk of obstetric interventions… probably because the diagnosis leads to intervention.' Check out the evidence on Low Amniotic Fluid and why inducing for this reas...