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Lawson: Fetal gender, even I can't tell From: MARK LAWSON (lawson98@juno.com) Mon Sep 13 20:36:44 1999 Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ] Next message: Scotia Phillips, RT, RDMS: "Re: Lawson: Fetal gender, even I can't tell" Previous message: Rich Dempsey RDMS/RVT: "Portal HTN" We relish a recent study of 11 repeat patients for Amnio. Alas we should of cut the "study" off at ten cause we got the *Sex* of the baby right on the first 10! 16w0d call, confirmation in 2w by amnio... easy? No way, but medicine is first a detective case.... What can we see? Don't you find it amazing that you can, at times, get more information by decreasing the overall gain? wow.. Do I do a disservice by telling my patients my last wrong "sex" call was >10years ago? I don't think so, it's fact and we get to teach that, we don't say things we're not sure about. Some things we can't tell about and this whole debate about calling the sex is a wonderful opportunity to let the patient know what we sonographers are all about. I'm sad to say a lot of my patients think the "wedding ring" test has some merit. We can help. As you know the wedding ring test is to see what the person holding the string wants you to have! :-) The *sex* of the baby is part of a complete scan of the uterine contents, lest we decide on certain parts of the exam to leave out... Like limbs. ;-) What about ambiguous genitalia? Outside your scope of practice? Not mine. I highly recommend Williams Obstetrics 20thEd. chapter7. But listen Sally, there is more here than if we can be confident about calling the fetal sex. This idea that parents are only concerned about the sex of their babies is a low blow to us parents. The truth is parents don't know what to ask, few ask if there is any accreta, or if the germinal matrix is normal. They count on us registered obstetrical sonographers to perform a complete study and if we are allowed by their physician to communicate some of these findings to the patients in the form of patient education, all the better. I used to get mad at the dad that got mad cause it was "another girl" but over the years I've come to realize that lucky dad knows nothing about CP, T21 or a host of other maladies. His only concern is the sex of that baby. How lucky a parent can you be? Can I offer a suggestion? We record all studies on tape with an audio tract. On that audio tract I explain where the crystal is and the target organ of interest. For example a segment of every audio tract contains information on the cranial contents... we call this segment the "Technical component" and I ask that the observers hold there questions while I "concentrate" on their baby. The Cranial contents audio tract is in strict homage to Bill McKinney, god lov'em, and includes the very technical medical latin I had to learn to do A-mode echoencephalograms. Be the most serious you can, cause you are. I think you'll find the patient will have a whole new set of questions to ask of you. Remember they don't know what to ask, you can help them. You can show them the miracle that their Baby is, and best of all they will include you in their family for taking part in the care and reassurance *we* so desperately want. The family of Community that we all belong to..... I gotta scan. -- Mark Lawson, Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer Texas The above comments are those of my own fabrication. And don't represent my religious, societal or legal beliefs under the proper cross examination. I reserve the right to be wrong. m. Next message: Scotia Phillips, RT, RDMS: "Re: Lawson: Fetal gender, even I can't tell" Previous message: Rich Dempsey RDMS/RVT: "Portal HTN"

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