Latest ultrasound

We had another 30th week ultrasound and this time we did it in Thane Ultrasound Center
after a very strong recommendation by a friend. Its a very well equipped laboratory and I must say it matches with the facilities at Hiranandani Hospital but I must that Hiranandani was way too good in terms of over all experience, the appointment queues are better managed and they have better facilities. In Hiranandani they projected the ultrasound images on a big television so that mother and relatives get much better view. BTW, below are some movie clips from latest ultrasound,

The Blank Slate

After writing about Garbhsanskar, I have had numerous discussions with Dakshata, parents, friends and relatives and this thought provoking topic kept on stimulating me. During the time I have read quite a few articles, blogs and books around this topic. A friend passed on a wonderfully written book The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker. Its a master piece, very well researched and equally well written book. Its a highly recommended and must read book. Below I am reproducing some content from the book.

The three laws of behavioral genetics may be the most important discoveries in the history of psychology. Yet most psychologist have not come to grips with them, and most intellectuals do not understand them, even when they have been explained in the cover stories of newsmagazins. It is not because the laws are abstuse: each can be stated in a sentence, without mathematical paraphernalia. Rather, it is because the laws run roughshod over the Blank Slate, and the Blank Slate is so ebthrenched that many intellectuals cannot comprehend an alternative to it, let alone argue about whether it is right or wrong.

• The First Law: All human behavioral traits are heritable.
• The Second Law: The effect of being raised in the same family is smaller than the effect of the genes.
• The Third Law: A substantial portion of the variation is complex human behavioral traits is not accounted for the effects of genes or families

He has provided lots of arguments, studies and references to prove above three laws. Essentially what these three laws means is, genes determines a fair bit of our personality, parenting or family environment has almost negligible effect on our personality and remaining of our personality is determined by our peers. (thats a scary thought for a father in waiting … )

So does this mean that there is no point in teaching our children good values, having good environment at home and treating them well. Steven has a very good answer for that as well “We may not hold their tomorrows in our hand but we surely hold their todays, and we have the power to make their todays very miserable”.

My learning from the book is, don’t be extremists either way. Try to provide your children with good environment at home and outside and help them pick good peers. They will turn out to be good human beings. Do not over do on parenting.

Garbhasanskar

This has been one topic which has stimulated my thought process for quite some time. Garbhsanskar is a sanskrit word. It can be divided into two parts - “Garbh“, which means womb and “sanskar” which means good values. So it means passing on good values to the fetus while its in the womb by parents. The story of Abhimanyu is well known in the Mahabharata. Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna, learned how to enter the Chakravyuha (the strategic arrangement of warriors to entrap and defeat the enemy) when he was in his mother’s womb. Abhimanyu had heard and remembered the narration of the technique by Krishna to Subhadra during her pregnancy.

There is tons of literature available in India regarding this topic. Also there are hundreds of Garbhasankar classes run by doctors, yoga gurus, babas etc etc. It attempts to teach it in the mostly unreasonable and unrealistic spiritual and religious context. It would suggest set of shlokas and mantras in sanskrit (which most of us cannot parse and understand), religious books, devotional songs, visit temples, prayers, meditation etc. According to them, parents and particularly mother can help to determine the future of the baby. BTW, the most popular CD and book is this.

Let me try to explain what I understand as Garbhsanskar and why it is important. It would be very interesting to hear your opinions on this very controversial topic.

I think there are three stages of Garbhsanskar - pre conception, conception and during the pregnancy.

Pre-conception

Pre-conception stage is really about the health of the mother and her physical fitness for the pregnancy. During pregnancy mother would undergo lot of physiological and hormonal changes, this stage is about preparing yourself, mentally and physically, for all of those changes. For example, it is well established that folic acid deficiency is responsible for neural defects and mental disorders. Similarly vitamins, sugar, hormones and other chemicals have a role in the birth of physically and mentally healthy baby. So the pre-conception stage of Garbhsankar deals with the diet and health of the mother. All of us know that environment and surrounding has profound effect on all kids. So this stage is to ensure that the environment where baby is going to grow for next 9 months is healthy, I call it as the Womb Environment.

Conception

This stage is about the genes. Features unborn would inherit from parents. This is complete lottery. Science clearly states that genes are immutable. So no matter what you read, what you eat, what you listen, it is not going to change your genes and one cannot control what the unborn will inherit from mother and father. So any literature or tales which suggests that eating a particular type of food can ensure the baby fair color is all bogus. This topic needs a separate details post.

During Pregnancy

All the efforts during this stage is directed towards keeping expectant mother happy. We know that stress, frustration, anger, irritation etc produces certain type of hormones which can potentially have some effect on the prenatal baby. So the traditional Grabhsankar suggest shlokas, mantras, prayers etc but I think any activity which can help mother happy is fine, it could art, music, movies, prayers anything.

Today, science has proved that intrauterine baby can not only listen, touch, feel but also can respond by its own way . 60 % of brain development occurs in intrauterine period. The suggestions against horror movies, action movies, loud music etc is I believe because it can disturb the sleeping baby. It has nothing to do with passing on bad values.

I think all of this is directed towards keeping expectant mother happy & making pregnancy a joyful experience.  What do you think?

The real challenge starts after the birth :).

Doctor or Hospital?

This is one question each and every parent in India face. I also went through same process of discovery, confusion and then final decision. This post will clearly help some prospective parents.

Our requirements were very simple -

• Doctor should spend time with us
• Listen to our questions and patiently answer our queries
• Understand our anxiety
• Available to help us in urgency
• Should be in late 30s, so he/she is enough experienced at the same time aware about new technologies
• Should be accessible in terms of distance and traffic
• He/she should be associated with a good hospital

After the good news was confirmed, I called up few friends who have had deliveries in Thane in recent times and then we visited various doctors in Thane. But I found out that everybody here was very busy, they had long queues, uncomfortable waiting periods on every visit and poor appointment management systems. Even if you take prior appointments every doctor had their own algorithms to prioritize the queue. I could see women in 9th month waiting for hours for appointment. It was just absolute chaos.

Then we got few good references from friends about Dr. Suneeta Phadake in Aundh, Pune. We visited her and we liked her in first few minutes. She was knowledgeable, experienced, sensitive and sensible. The problem was, she was in Pune. This meant that we will have to travel every month until 8th month and then move to Pune in 9th month of pregnancy. Also she won’t be available in case of urgency during first 8 months. But we were just so impressed with her that we decided to go ahead and if pregnancy progresses without any complications, we would continue with her. Decision turned out to be very good until now because she has really helped us to cope with the anxiety and stress in first 6 months very nicely.

One thing which we completely forgot from our list of requirements was to check out the hospital she was associated with. I realized that its very important to choose the hospital which has separate maternity ward. I realized that environment in maternity homes is completely different than in a general hospital where all kinds of patients check in. Apart from really fatal deliveries, which are rare, the atmosphere is mostly cheerful and full of happiness in maternity wards. Thats when we rushed to check out the hospitals Dr. Suneeta was associated. We decided to prefer Ratna hospital over Kodbaghe, even though its little far off because it has separate maternity floor and lots of choices of rooms.

First look at my baby

Hi from another world

Million dollar smile !!!

4D or 2D Ultrasound

We did our second scan last week, that was 2D ultrasound. We really wanted to capture the pictures and the movements on CD but radiologist referred by our doctor does not have 4D machine nor his 2D machine could capture 2D images on CD. But we were just so excited that we consulted our doctor and decided to do another 4D. Ultrasound has been used for well over 35 years and there has been extensive studies that have shown that ultrasound is safe for mother and baby. But even then I wouldn’t really suggest taking chances with many scans.

BTW, very few hospitals have this facility. I checked at quite a few hospitals and figured out that Hiranandani Hospital in Powai has this facility. There was substantial cost difference 2D costs around 1000 Rs. and 4D/3D costs around 3000 Rs. We went to  Hiranandani Hospital on Wednesday and experience there was very good, every thing process driven and less chaos. Unlike earlier scan, I was allowed right from the begining. There was a big TV screen where the ultrasound was projected. Doctor also did a much detailed study of each and every organ of the baby as compared to earlier scan. She also very patiently answered to all of my queries (there were many, each query deservs a post ). It took around 45 mintues to get the scan done.

During this process, I did some research on 2D, 3D and 4D ultrasounds.  I thought it might be useful for some people so here is the post about it.

Ultrasound: It a screening or diagnostic technique in which very high frequency sound waves are passed into the body, and the reflected echoes are detected and analyzed to build a picture of the baby in the uterus

3D/4D ultrasound: It is a technique that provides a three-dimensional picture; allows one to see width, height, and depth of images. With 4D Imaging, a three-dimensional image is continuously updated, providing a “live action” view. This allows you visualization of the unborn baby moving in real-time.

How does 4D ultrasound differ from traditional 2D?

Traditional 2D ultrasound employs sound waves which are reflected back in uni-direction. This means the waves are sent and reflected straight back.

A clear analogy will be that of a knife going through a loaf of bread. It will give you a slice. Looking at the surface of the slice in isolation you can get an impression but you cannot possibly know how the whole loaf of bread looked like.

4D ultrasound uses the same high frequency sound waves as 2D. The difference is that, the waves are sent into the body at multiple different angles. The reflected waves are then processed by a computer to reconstitute and produce the life-like image complete with movements. It is awesome. The technology has been there for a number of years but now with affordable sophisticated computers they are available at much cheaper prices.

With this scan we could actually see characteristics of the our baby’s face, facial expressions and all sorts of movements and actions the baby makes because the clarity was sharp. I could actually see that baby is growing, it is healthy and all important parts are well developed and functional. My baby was really waving and smiling at me. If 2D experience was awesome this was out of the world. I would really recommend doing 4D and extra cost is worth it.

Unfortunately again, in India revealing sex of the baby is illegal. So we still cannot start our shopping. I will soon upload the movie, need to do some editing before uploading it.

Kick of the chick

Until yesterday, amongst so many other things one thing which I was not able to experience were movements of my baby. Dakshata was noticing movements since last 2 weeks. Earlier it wasn’t even very apparent for her that what she was feeling were hands and legs of our baby. She felt as if an air-ball was rolling in her stomach .

Yesterday night even I could feel kick of my baby from outside. It was very rythmic, as if the baby was cycling at a contant speed. Another sign of an active life inside.

Sound of an ultrasound

Is Ultrasound scan safe during pregnancy? This was the first question we asked our doctor. There is no data available  about any side effects of ultrasound during pregnancy but then few decades ago even X-Ray was also considered safe.

First Ultrasound in second month

First ultrasound was done in the second month, this was a quick scan and its done to identify if there are more than one baby (twins) and is it properly placed in the gestation bag. To my disappointment, we were not fortunate to have twins (Dakshata felt relieved :)) but then probability of having twins in just 3%. Below are pictures from the first scan. Can you imagine, the baby at this stage was just 3 cms and head is the most dominant part.

Second Ultrasound in 20th week

Our doctor had informed us in last visit this is the most important test.  This was done in the 20th week. We really wanted to capture this on CD but the radiologist recommended by our doctor did not have this facility and our doctor was on leave, so we couldn’t get another reference letter. So we had to unwillingly settle for a 2D B/W scan.

He started the scan and I was anxious to see it on screen but he asked me to wait for few minutes. While I was restlessly waiting he started telling many different numbers to his assistant. While she was busy taking notes she also opened one existing report of Mrs. Sunidhi and started making some changes. I made quick mental note of what she was changing. The two most important things apart from few numbers which differed in our report, were position of the baby and type of placenta. After we came out I immediately queried Google that “vertex presentation with spine left and posterior” and “fundo-posterior, Grade 1″ are common. Then he called me to see it on screen. He showed us our baby’s beating heart, brain, spinal cord, ribs, legs, hands etc. We saw our baby’s movements and this was the most unforgatable moment.  We felt really really relieved. Following are few things examined during the scan -

Baby’s internal organs were examined in cross-sectional views which was difficult for to make out.  But with some help from doctor, I could make out mostly every thing. Bones appeared white on the scan, fluid is black, and soft tissues look gray.

• The head was examined first, to check its shape and internal structures. He informed that some severe brain problems are visible at this stage. He also looked at the baby’s face to see if he can see any cleft of the lip.
• The spine was checked in both the long view and in cross section, to make sure that all the vertebrae are in alignment and that the skin covers the spine at the back. The baby’s abdominal wall was also checked to make sure it covers all the internal organs at the front.
• The heart was looked at very closly for its size and shape.
• The stomach was visible just below the heart. He also showed some black spots which was apperently urine, which means kidneys are functional.
• Hands and feet were examined and the fingers and toes were also looked at. Baby could move its hands and legs.

To our relief doctor confirmed that the baby is fine and its important organs are already functional. This scan ruled out all the structural anomalies. By this time almost all parts of baby were functional. Doctor also explained us about different numbers under the Foetal Biometry and I also did little bit Googling to understand these numbers. Essentially all of these are sizes of various parts of body of baby. They help to determine the age of the baby and ensure that various organs are growing in proportion.

So now we are just so thrilled with this scan that we thought about doing another 4D color scan and this time we will capture it as movie also 4D will ensure better chances of detecting structural anomalies than 2D could . We also consulted our doctor and she okayed our plan. Now we have appointment on Wednesday at Hiranandani Hospital, Powai for 4D scan. I am eagerly waiting for Wednesday. BTW, I got

pictures from second ultrasound scanned, check them out.

BTW, I am getting design ready for my T-Shirt with above pictures while Dakshata is waiting for images from 4D.