First photos
Parents seek out high-tech ultrasounds
Parents seek out high-tech ultrasounds

By Chris Jones

Published: July 29, 2008

Judy Davis had tears in her eyes, and her husband Richard, was speechless.

"Wow,” Richard Davis said as he walked into the reception area of Ultrasound Unlimited in Edmond. "Wow, we just found out we are having twins! I am really excited about this.”

Judy and Richard Davis from Wewoka, their children Chance, 5, and Riley, 3, and Richard's grandmother, Doris Davis, 88, of Oklahoma City shared the joy of seeing twins, a boy and a girl, on the ultrasound screen. The appearance of twins surprised everyone except Chance, who told his parents earlier he was going to have a baby brother and sister to play with and to teach. After all the excitement, Chance crawled under a table and said he was a tiger.

"This was my first ultrasound with this pregnancy,” Judy Davis said. "I'm 33 weeks, and it's so standard to get ultrasounds, people just could not believe I hadn't had even one. I decided to go in for measurements of the baby, see how the baby was developing, if we were having a boy or a girl. It wasn't for photos or DVD. Richard and I just wanted to see two arms and two legs on the ultrasound screen, and we saw more than that.”

Barbara Pennell, a registered sonographer and owner of Ultrasound Unlimited, provides diagnostic ultrasounds as well as 3-D and 4-D photos and DVDs for parents. Three generations watched the screen as Pennell pointed out images of Baby A, a boy, weighing 4 pounds 13 ounces, and Baby B, a girl weighing 4 pounds 10 ounces.

Pennell's office filled up the morning of July 17 with the Davis family, Randy and Cheryl Ross from Ada, and a couple from Oklahoma City.

Ultrasound centers in malls and offices outside medical facilities have become big business, and the demand for their services is increasing in Oklahoma and throughout the country. The 3-D and 4-D ultrasound technology provides expectant parents detailed views of their baby and keepsake packages to begin their infant's photo album before he or she is born.

It was the fourth ultrasound for Cheryl Ross, who is expecting in early October. The Rosses are fascinated with the progress of their first child, and as the couple watched 4-D images of their baby on screens, they were rewarded with a tiny smile from the baby girl they have named Kaylee Faye.

"I'm up to my neck in hay right now,” Randy said, referring to the 1,500 acres he farms with his grandfather in Stonewall. But the couple made the appointment a priority. "We wanted to get a 4-D ultrasound and a DVD of the baby to show our family, and our friends recommended Ultrasound Unlimited.”

Parents who grew up in the technology era want the best, most-detailed photos of their baby to share with family and friends. Cheryl Ross said she will compare the photos of their unborn baby with baby photos of her husband and herself. She said she has a friend who had a recent ultrasound, and the unborn baby slept during the ultrasound. That's commonly what babies do, but sometimes expectant parents get to see their baby yawn, suck its thumb or smile.

Ashley Cravens, who is expecting her first baby Nov. 13, had her first ultrasound at the hospital where her baby will be delivered, but she said she couldn't see much detail. She plans another ultrasound at an imaging center during her 29th week of pregnancy.

"It's pretty amazing to see this little life inside of me, and I want to see more,” Cravens said. "This is so exciting, and when I checked out the Web site of the place and saw all the pictures, I thought it is just too neat not to do. My husband and I thought it would be expensive to get an ultrasound with 4-D photos and a DVD, but it's not. This is the first grandchild on both sides of the family, and we want to have these photos to share and keep them forever.”

Cravens said she believes the ultrasounds outside of a medical setting are safe, but she said if her doctor told her it wasn't a good idea, she wouldn't do it.

Baby Payton, due to enter the world Sept. 10, put on a show for her parents, Crystal and Brad Spear, and sisters, Chloe, 9, and Ivy 5, during a recent third ultrasound at Baby Faces in Norman. The family from Jones is keeping track of the child's growth, and Crystal Spear said she has confidence in the ability and professionalism of Mike Wahkinney, a registered sonographer who said he has performed more than 6,500 obstetric ultrasounds.

"We are so impressed with 4-D ultrasound,” Crystal Spear said. "We picked the name Payton because of the personality we saw on the screen. She grabbed her foot and played with her foot, and we saw her chubby little cheeks. This is such a big thing in people's lives, and it was good to count all her toes and all her fingers. She has hair, too.”

Ultrasound, also known as sonography, has been in use by obstetricians and other health care professionals for years to diagnose pregnancies, determine fetal age, detect abnormalities, and check for more than one baby. The use of ultrasound for nonmedical purposes is called entertainment ultrasound by some medical professionals who voice their objection to the practice. But despite some grumblings against the high-tech baby photos, expectant moms demand the service and say they are thrilled to see their infant's face and celebrate their pregnancy in a way that wasn't possible a few years ago.

"People who aren't registered sonographers don't have proper training and shouldn't be doing ultrasounds,” said Pennell, who opened her business 20 years ago. "Nationwide, the prenatal ultrasounds are a phenomenon. It's called entertainment ultrasound, but I'm not about entertainment. Anytime a person has an ultrasound, there should be a thorough check of the baby. This technology wasn't created just for fun.

Shelli Jackson, mother of Cole, 3, and Cooper, 9 weeks, said she and her husband, Rob, have known Wahkinney for some time, and they trusted him when they decided to go to Baby Faces for an ultrasound at 21 weeks. The available technology continues to advance, and the 2-D pictures from Cole's ultrasound are not as clear and defined as those from Cooper's ultrasound.

"We had three generations there at Cooper's ultrasound, and it was a neat experience for my parents, and Cole, too,” Jackson said. "When we saw Cooper's chin, we thought he had the dominant Jackson trait. It's great to know what Baby looks like.”

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