HEALTH

Baby's First Movie

New ultrasound technology
creates motion pictures in
the womb.

BY RONELLE GRIER

PHOTOGRAPHY

BY ANGIE BAAN

B

aby pictures usually bring
to mind chubby children
on bearskin rugs, wearing
nothing but toothless grins, often
brought out by proud parents at the
most inopportune moments. But
thanks to new "4D" ultrasound tech-
nology, a teenager of the future
might someday find his girlfriend
watching video footage that shows
him frolicking in his mother's womb.

Four-dimensional ultrasound,
developed by General Electric, takes
3D images and adds the dimension of
time, resulting in clear and detailed
live-action pictures of the baby dur-
ing various stages of pregnancy. The
images can be recorded on videocas-
sette, which is used for diagnostic
purposes before it becomes part of
the family's home video library.
One of the first obstetrical prac-
tices in this area to purchase the
GE Voluson 730 4D ultrasound
machine was Women's Health Care
Consultants in Farmington Hills.
Other new machines can be found
in some local hospitals and doc-
tors' offices.
"We knew this was the wave of
the future, and we wanted to be on
the forefront," said Dr. Allan Emery
of Women's Health Consultants.
"We foresee many new medical
applications for this technology once
all the clinical studies that are under
way are completed. Plus, there's a
happy factor — when a mother gets
to see her baby's face before he or
she is born, it's very reassuring."
Dr. Emery says that two-dimen-
sional ultrasounds, which can be
performed on the same machine, are
still used for routine screening at 18-
22 weeks of pregnancy, as well as for
determining due dates, monitoring

22 • JULY 2oo5 • JNPLATINUM

Ultrasound technician Pamela Camp of Livonia and Dr. Allan Emery with patient Amanda Tompkins

Left: Ashley Broad and her son,
Evan, 6 weeks old, with Dr.
Alvin Schoenberger