Latest pregnancy trend: Ultrasound parties. (Jordache / Shutterstock)
In this world of too much information, aka TMI, a new trend is emerging among pregnant women—who just might be the ultimate “oversharers.”
This morning, NBC’s Today Show aired a segment about ultrasound parties. At these intimate events, parents-to-be invite friends and family into their homes for a viewing of the fetus. A pregnant woman might lie down on the living room sofa while a technician with an ultra sound machine and laptop runs a scan over the swollen belly. The party guests gather round, ewing and ahhing at the sight of tiny hands and feet and a teeny unborn baby who looks like an alien.
Often the baby’s gender is revealed for the first time at these parties.
Today talked with licensed ultrasound techs Teena Gold and Christy Foster of Arkansas who founded Baby Face and More, offering in-home ultrasounds. The members of the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography started the business as soon as they could afford a high-quality mobile ultrasound machine of their own,” and they charge $100-$350 per screening. The majority of their business is gender-reveal parties.
Other similar companies are springing up around the country. In Santa Monica, Calif., Peek A View offers baby-viewing parties starting at $375. In Southern Florida, Miracles Imaging will bring the ultrasound equipment to your party for $179.
I write this story begrudgingly because I think today’s pregnant women often share too much information, posting weekly pregnant belly photos on Facebook and hiring professional photographers to capture their child births. At what point do pregnant women start to come off as overly self-absorbed?
But while I’m rolling my eyes at ultrasound parties because they seem like excessive naval-gazing, experts have bigger concerns. “What if the ultrasonographer started the ultrasound and there was no heartbeat?” Dr. Amber Sills, an OB/GYN from Bentonville, Ark., told Today. “Or what if the fetus had not developed a skull/head/brain? This happens more than most people realize. What do you do then?”
