Everything You Need to Know about Houston Baby Ultrasound

When you’re pregnant, it‘s a wonderful time in your life, but it’s also a time that involves a lot of waiting. Once you get the exciting news, you have to wait to find out the sex of the baby, wait to get through the cravings, and wait an amazing nine to ten months to get to meet the new person who is going to be the center of your life.

Fortunately, while you wait to meet your new son or daughter, a South Houston 3D ultrasound or South Houston 4D ultrasound can give you the best preview possible.

What is a South Houston 3D Ultrasound?

A South Houston 3D ultrasound uses advanced ultrasound technology to let you get a three-dimensional image of your baby. The ultrasound is a non-diagnostic ultrasound that gives you a detailed and realistic picture of what your baby will look like so you actually get the experience of seeing your son or daughter well before the child is born.

When you have a 3D Ultrasound, you get one of the clearest Houston baby ultrasound images available, which can provide you with much more detail than a standard ultrasound conducted by a physician. Typically, when you have a diagnostic ultrasound provided by your physician, 2D scanning is used, which means that sound waves are sent directly down and the reflected right back. This 2D scan can help identify problems and help make sure your baby is growing normally, but won't give you a very detailed picture of what your child looks like.

A 3D ultrasound, on the other hand, sends sound waves at several different angles during the ultrasound, providing a much more detailed picture.  The sound waves can be sent back to a special computer program that pieces all of the information together.

When you have a Houston 3D ultrasound, a qualified sonographer will be able to take an image of your baby within just a few minutes, giving you the clearest pictures possible. Not only can you see the sex of your baby, but you can also get a detailed look at the shape of his or her features, his size and his position and movements. You can take these images of your baby home with you. These images can be shared with friends and family and can be saved and treasured as the first real baby pictures of your child.

What is a South Houston 4D Ultrasound?

A South Houston 4D ultrasound is very similar to a 3D ultrasound, except that it adds a fourth dimension: time. Essentially, this means that you get to see the detailed images of your baby in real time instead of waiting for a computer to put together all of the different images as you do in a 3D ultrasound. A 4D ultrasound is essentially like a live video feed of your baby, seen in great detail, while your baby is still inside of you.

Both a pregnancy 3D & 4D ultrasound provide a wonderful opportunity to meet your baby early on and to enjoy an increased prenatal bonding.

Benefits of a Pregnancy 3D & 4D Ultrasound

A pregnancy ultrasound is a routine part of prenatal care and is normally conducted by your physician or midwife. This type of Houston pregnancy ultrasound is normally referred to as a diagnostic ultrasound and is usually performed to make sure that your baby is growing and developing properly, to hear your baby's heartbeat and to identify any potential problems that might occur. While you do get a picture from this ultrasound and you get to feel a connection with your unborn child, the diagnostic ultrasound is usually only a 2D ultrasound and it provides you with a very limited amount of detail as far as what your child looks like.

Two other types of ultrasounds exist however: a pregnancy 3D & 4D ultrasound. Both a pregnancy 3D & 4D ultrasound provide you with a much more detailed image of your unborn child, which has many benefits.

The Benefits of Pregnancy 3D & 4D Ultrasounds

The biggest benefit of both 3D & 4D pregnancy ultrasounds is that you get to see your child in much more detail. While a 2D imaging procedure involves the sound waves being reflected immediately back, a 3D and 4D ultrasound will each send sound waves from a number of different angles, giving you the chance to put together a much more realistic picture that actually shows your child's features.

With a 3D ultrasound, an advanced computer program pieces all of the information from the reflected sound waves together and, after a slight lag, you will be taking a close-up look at your child and you'll actually be able to see what he or she will look like after birth.

With a 4D ultrasound, you'll get to take the same detailed look at your baby, however another "dimension" is added (hence the name 4D). In this case, that fourth dimension refers to time and signifies that you'll be seeing your child in real time.

Other Benefits

Seeing your child is an obvious benefit, but there are also other advantages that are related to the fact that you get to see your son or daughter. For instance, a South Houston 4D ultrasound or 3D ultrasound can make the pregnancy more realistic to you and can make you feel closer to your baby. This will help to increase bonding between parent and child, which can encourage you to become more vigilant about prenatal care.

Finally, you also get the opportunity to keep images or a video of your child in most cases. This means you can share this information with others. Distant grandparents, friends and family can all become more excited about the baby once they see him or her and start to find a family resemblance in the features and feel as if the child is really a little person who will soon be part of the family.

The images you get in your pregnancy ultrasound can be treasured family memories. You can show these images to your child after he or she is born, keep them as part of your child's baby book, and let your child know how much he or she was loved, even before birth.