What Is an Ultrasound?
Ultrasounds are a simple and painless procedure. This procedure involves an imaging method that uses high-frequency sound waves to capture images inside your body.
A healthcare professional uses a handheld device called a transducer to reveal the contents of your uterus. The transducer sends sound waves to the body, and a computer receives the echoes that bounce back. This process creates images on a screen.
Why Is an Ultrasound Needed?
After confirming your pregnancy with lab-quality pregnancy testing, an ultrasound is your final step to confirmation. This will determine what choices you have moving forward with a pregnancy decision.
1. Confirm Your Pregnancy
After receiving a positive pregnancy test, an ultrasound is your next step. These are the three details an ultrasound reveals…
- The location of your pregnancy (if it’s within the uterus or not)
- The viability of your pregnancy (if it’s progressing)
- The gestation of your pregnancy (how long you have been pregnant)
2. Know About Potential Risks
An ultrasound does more than confirm your pregnancy. It also alerts you to potential pregnancy risks and health complications like miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy.
An ultrasound can detect an ectopic pregnancy (a pregnancy located outside the uterus), which is not considered a viable pregnancy and can pose a major health threat if not addressed right away. Certain health complications may eliminate pregnancy choices for you, so it’s essential that you don’t skip an ultrasound.
Free and Confidential Ultrasounds
Once you confirm your pregnancy with our lab-quality pregnancy testing, an ultrasound is your next step. We offer these for free at Hope Pregnancy Resource Center.
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