Is Ultrasound Scan safe for my baby?

I know that most people would not hesitate to do ultrasound the second they know they're pregnant, and just assumed it is safe since everyone's doing it. Why would you ever thought otherwise?

I happen to do some research readings on ultrasound safety as i had to do a presentation on an ultrasound topic. I think some mommies out there might appreciate a few things that I found out. I won't mention basic things like the basis of ultrasound is soundwaves(obviously) similar like those blind bats use to find their way about (subhanaAllah..)

1. Ultrasound has been done to scan babies since the past 5 decades without any obvious effects noted to the babies1. That means researchers actually compare babies who had ultrasound on them and those who did not (yes folks there was a time where mommies did not have a sneak peak at the babies in their tummies) and did not note of any congenital defects, cancer, mental illness, cognitive or intellectual or developmental effects resulting from it.

2. However there were a few studies that noted there was a 15 % higher chance of babies who had ultrasound earlier in pregnancy (less than 19 weeks of pregnancy) to not be righthanded (in our word-kidal), after adjusting factors which may contribute to them being non-righthanded such as family members with non-righthandedness. Source:Ultrasound in pregnancy and non‐right handedness: meta‐analysis ...

So does this mean that ultrasound actually had some subtle effect on the developing brains of the babies? It has yet to be confirmed as the researchers do not know whether there is a causal relationship or not between ultrasound and the outcome of non-righthandedness. And the bad (or good?) news is i don't think they'll ever know as nowadays it is kind of hard to find mothers without ultrasound done by 18 weeks of pregnancy. But since it's proven to be safe, there's no harm in having a left-handed kid, is there? Plus the advantages of having early scans are numerous and should not be sacrificed for this worry.

And I actually did secretly wish to be lefthanded during my student years before, as I love to eat while writing!

So I think my second daughter Adibah would actually thank me later for not having time to go for antenatal checkups when I was pregnant with her (I was a pediatric med officer at that time) and instead did frequent scans with her father being an obs medical officer;)