Safety of private Obstetrics Ultrasound
Maternity care providers and practitioners all want the best for you and your baby, believing scanning is not harmful. However, even experts and organisations that are most involved in promoting and performing scans have accepted that there are unanswered questions about the safety of scanning for non-medical purposes.
For these reasons, Sonographers at Bump to Baby take the safety of you and your baby very seriously and adhere to the ALARA principle – to limit exposure to “as low as reasonably achievable”. This means that we have our equipment set to the lowest possible settings, whilst still producing quality images of your baby. We also impose a maximum amount of time that we will expose your baby to the ultrasound, therefore even our most expensive package will not last for more than 45 minutes.
In order to achieve this, ultrasound machines should only be operated by highly trained qualified medical professions. Here at Bump to Baby all Sonographers are diagnostic radiographers who have postgraduate qualifications in Medical Ultrasound and are registered with a professional body, either HCPC (Health and Care Professionals Council) or NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council). You can check whether your Sonographer is qualified by checking their details on-line or asking to see their registration documents.
https://www.nmc.org.uk/registration/search-the-register/
Bump to Baby have these documents ready to view in the clinic and would recommend you check this information prior to having any private scan.
We also follow BMUS (British Medical Ultrasound Society) and RCOG (Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology) guidelines for private obstetric scans and ensure as standard with every single scan we perform a wellbeing check ensure both mother and baby’s health is our main priority.
