Why Don't My 3D Pictures Look Like Hers?

Why don't my 3D pictures look like hers?

This is a question we get asked every now and again. Sometimes it's hard to explain and sometimes, due to the fact that we are a Non-diagnostic ultrasound facility, we are unable to explain why. The best place to begin with is explaining exactly what 3D and 4D ultrasound is. We are constantly asked this question, what's the difference? We've found a great video Youtube that has some AMAZING pictures and examples. You can find that here.

A 3D image is the ultrasound machine and probe sending out sound waves in different directions and rendering an image back to the machine from these sound waves. It really is amazing to think about. Here is another website with some basic information about 3D/4D ultrasounds.

Every patient is going to be different. I promise from the bottom of our hearts if we could have every patient leave with the most perfect pictures we would. That is honestly one of the main reasons places like ours opened. With our appointments we are able to give parents that one on one quality time with their baby they feel they are missing in the hospital. Please understand that in the hospital the registered Sonographers are using your ultrasound appointment time to do their jobs and find out as much as they can about the health and well being of your baby. They are taking measurements to determine your baby's gestational age and growth, checking body organs, checking fluid levels and many other things. The gender of your baby, while important to you, is not life threatening so sometimes due to many factors they may not be able to get to that in your appointment or your baby may be rolled over and they cannot get you that adorable face picture you were hoping for. In these situations, and many others, people come to us for help. Our appointment times are longer, we do not take measurements because we are not associated with a Doctor and it is greatly frowned upon in the medical community around here to do so, so we have a better chance of getting that difficult gender shot or cute little profile picture you are hoping for.

With 3D/4D ultrasound many factors beyond just the position of the baby can effect these pictures. The body habitus of the mother plays quite a roll in the quality of the pictures. The placental location plays a major roll as well. If you have an anterior placenta the odds are it will be in the baby's face for the ultrasound. Mother's with anterior placenta's want to do their 3D/4D ultrasound scans around 28-29 weeks so we still have room to try to get around this. Another large factor is and will always be fluid levels. The better your fluid levels are the better the pictures are going to be. If you have low fluid levels the pictures will be dark and fuzzy and harder to make out. You cannot just drink extra fluids a few hours before your appointment and expect it to build them up. Building up your fluid levels can take a few days or even longer. We always ask 1-2 weeks prior to your 3D scan that you drink extra fluids to help this.

Another big thing is baby's position. If we could magically move their hands or feet, we would in an instant. We would love to promise that your unborn baby is going to treat this ultrasound as a newborn photography shoot, but we can't.

They're babies. In the womb. It's a tight area and they're making the best of their situation that they can.

So sometimes they are rolled on their sides facing Mom's back, or sometimes they're doing baby yoga with their feet on their heads (this actually happens all the time)!

We just ask that parents have a realistic expectation of what we are able to get picture wise of their child in the womb. We have a brand new top of the line ultrasound machine and both of our technicians are highly trained and have been doing this for a few years now. We offer longer appointment times that you can pick if you feel you may need extra time for your baby to cooperate. We offer drinks and chocolate snacks for mom-to-be in the ultrasound room. We'll get mom to roll side to side and walk around and jiggle baby as best as we can but sometimes baby's just have other agenda's because when it comes down to it, we are bothering them in their tight, quiet little home. We don't write this post to scare parents or grandparents off from the idea of a 3D/4D ultrasound, we just write it to try to open everyone's eyes to how they work.

They are miraculous to witness and amazing to see and we love doing every single one of them but we cannot promise that your unborn baby will give us that amazing full face shot. We cannot promise that we can magically adjust your baby's position. We cannot promise that a machine rendering a picture of your unborn child in utero will be crystal clear and perfect like the ones on the machine's websites or even your best friend's. We do promise to do everything we can to give you the best possible pictures of your baby. We are very proud to boast that we do offer rescans, on specific packages, at no cost to you for baby's that will give us 0 pictures of their face. We are also proud to still offer longer ultrasound at a much cheaper price than any other company in hopes of getting you that perfect picture.

So in conclusion we are hoping to help educate anyone who is wondering what the difference between 3D and 4D ultrasound is. 3D is a still image and 4D is watching the baby move in live time, like a movie. We are also hoping to help everyone get ready for their 3D scan as best as possible and have a realistic expectation of what their ultrasound might be like. We strive to always be upfront and honest with all of our customers, even if it means we lose some.

We never want you to leave here feeling like you wasted your money or didn't get what you wanted because you were misinformed.

We truly want your experience at First Glimpse to be a memory you will cherish a lifetime. If you read this whole post, thank you so much for your time!