First Peek Ultrasound Blog

The 3D ultrasound blog of the Chicagoland area

Archive for category Fun stuff

Trisdesonographophobia – abnormal fear of 3D ultrasounds

Aug 12

Posted by firstpeek in Fun stuff | 2 Comments

As Friday the 13th comes around the corner, many people are talking about triskaidekaphobia, or  fear of the number 13.  You may have even heard of the terms, paraskevidekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia, which refer to the fear of Friday the 13th.  But there is a far more insidious fear that specifically affects some pregnant women.  It is trisdesonographophobia (pronounced TRIS – dee – SON – o – graf-o- fobia) – an irrational fear of 3D ultrasounds.

Of course, there is nothing to be afraid of with 3D ultrasounds.  3D ultrasound uses the same sound waves as the ultrasounds used in your doctor’s office, and the safety of ultrasounds in general have stood the test of time, over 35 years without any known harmful effects.

There are a few other fears regarding 3D ultrasounds besides safety concerns.

For couples who do not want to know the gender of the baby, there is a fear that seeing your baby will reveal the sex of the baby.

There is no way to tell the sex of the baby just by looking at the baby’s face on 3D ultrasound.  If you request to not find out the gender of your baby, your appointment will be especially flagged and our entire staff will make sure to not discuss the gender. Also, if the technician needs to put the ultrasound probe in that specific region, such as may be necessary to get a better angle, our technician informs the mom to look away and our technician looks away as well! This way, our ultrasound technician won’t accidentally reveal the gender of your baby by referring to your baby as he or she.  At First Peek Ultrasound, you can rest assured that you have nothing to fear of 3D ultrasounds if you do not want to know the sex of your baby.

The fear that your baby will look like an alien

Babies do look fish-like, alien-like, or, the term we prefer, embryonic, when you are very early in your pregnancy.  Although we can generally determine the gender of your baby as early as 15 weeks, if you are coming for the purpose of seeing and bonding with your baby and getting good pictures of your baby, we do not recommend you come in before 17 weeks, and preferably after 20 weeks.  The ideal time to come in for pictures is between 24 and 30 weeks.

To get a general idea of what your baby may look like at each stage of pregnancy, check out our 3D ultrasound gallery to see a week-by-week breakdown.

The fear that your baby will not be cute

Don’t worry.  Every mom thinks their baby is cute.

The fear that you may find out something wrong

Our 3D ultrasound sessions are not medical, so we do not do any diagnostic evaluation.  If we do happen to see something, we will notify you and your doctor. If you did not get a call from us, then we did not notice anything wrong, but this does not mean that your baby has a clear bill of health.  It is important for all pregnant women to get proper prenatal care and a medical diagnostic ultrasound as may be indicated.

The fear that you can not afford it

This is a very common fear among pregnant women regarding 3D ultrasounds – that 3D ultrasounds are too expensive and that they will not be able to afford it.  At First Peek Ultrasound, you have nothing to fear.  Our 3D ultrasound packages start at $39, and our most popular package, the First Peek Package, is only $59.  (Prior to First Peek Ultrasound’s existence, a similar package in Chicago would have been at least $100.)

Have you experienced trisdesonographophobia?  What are some of the fears you had regarding 3D ultrasounds?

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Latest WikiLeaks entry reveals secret of local pregnant woman

Aug 11

Posted by firstpeek in Fun stuff | No Comments

WikiLeaks leaks secret mystery inside the womb:  You’re having a girl.

It is no secret that WikiLeaks, the largest source of leaks on the internet, comprises mainly of embarrassing military secrets.  But it could come as a surprise that among the 2,000+ pages of unconfirmed reports and hush-hush innuendos that comprise Wikileaks, there are some secrets that are more of a personal nature.

Since, at least as it was originally planned, anyone can leak anything onto the website, “Anybody can post to it, anybody can edit it,“ you would expect to find even more mundane and personal things leaked, such as a surprise birthday party that  your friends are trying to arrange for you.

One local Chicago pregnant woman was surprised to find out, during her weekly perusal of WikiLeaks, that she was having a girl.

I was about to receive a 3D ultrasound at First Peek Ultrasound next week, and I had told them that I definitely did not want to know the gender of the baby.  I don’t know how the technician could have known I was having a girl even before my ultrasound session.  Now I look onto WikiLeaks and it turns out the whole world knew even before I did that I’m having a girl.

The PR spokesperson at First Peek Ultrasound, a 3D ultrasound studio in Oak Park, IL, stated that

No one at First Peek Ultrasound was responsible for the leak.  If the customer does not want to know the gender, we do not even look at the gender.  The leak could have been put forth by a family member or any other secret service agent.  The report is unsubstantiated and may be wrong anyway.

The standard operating procedure, or SOP for short, for gender check determination procedures at First Peek Ultrasound itself was leaked at WikiLeaks by an anonymous Chicago 3D ultrasound blog.  According to the WikiLeaks entry, the technician asks if the pregnant woman wants to know if it’s a boy or a girl.  If she does not want to know, the technician herself will turn her head away when getting close to the region where you can tell the gender and will instruct the pregnant woman to do likewise.  Thus, there is no chance that the technician will slip up by referring to the baby as he or she during the session. She also warns the customers to look past the section on the DVD recording that may reveal the gender.

Many pregnant woman try to keep the gender of their baby a secret to family and friends even after they find out at First Peek Ultrasound.  However, the sex of the baby usually slips out during innocent conversations, such as when discussing the future plans for the baby.

“My mom noticed I was no longer worrying about whether I should have my baby circumcised or not if it’s a boy, and so she soon guessed that we knew it was going to be a girl,” one Cicero pregnant woman confided to us.

“When I gave in and chose a blue teddy bear for the baby heartbeat package, my sister immediately guessed I was having a boy, and we hadn’t even left the First Peek studio yet.  I was like, ‘No! Pretend you don’t know yet! I haven’t even told Mom and Dad yet!’ ” – a customer from Evanston told us during an anonymous interview.

Gender can be determined as early as 15 weeks at First Peek Ultrasound, and can be leaked onto Facebook pages as early as 15 weeks as well.

If you do not want to know the sex of your baby, feel free to get your 3D ultrasound at First Peek Ultrasound.  Your appointment will be specially flagged in our scheduling system and our entire staff will be notified before your visit, and great care will be taken to not show you or tell you the gender of your baby.  At First Peek Ultrasound, you can rest assured that your uterine secrets will not be leaked.

Also, some customers choose to not want to know the sex of the baby but want the results to be placed in an envelope to be opened later with family.  This can be fun for your whole family.

Nothing is 100% until your baby is born, but with our Gender Check Guarantee, you can come back for free until we can determine the gender of your baby with reasonable certainty.

How have you leaked the gender of your baby to others?  Did you plan it in a ceremony or did it slip out in conversation?  We’d like to hear any interesting stories of how you told others the gender of your baby.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Should pregnant women celebrate Mother’s Day?

May 6

Posted by firstpeek in Fun stuff | No Comments

Are women who are pregnant for the first time considered mothers and can they celebrate Mother’s Day?

By the looks of the websites of many 3D ultrasound centers, this seems to be true.  But maybe we’re biased.

What do you think?  Should pregnant women celebrate Mother’s Day?  Should they receive gifts for Mother’s Day, or should they wait until they actually have a baby?

Tags: , , , , ,

Sales tax on services?

Oct 7

Posted by firstpeek in Fun stuff | 1 Comment

At First Peek Ultrasound, we do not charge sales tax because we are a service.

I have noticed many services charging sales tax to its customers, from Kinko’s to other 3D ultrasound companies, which is not necessary, and I wonder if these companies are unscrupulously keeping the sales tax revenue or actually ignorantly passing these on to the state government.  Even many restaurants will unknowingly charge sales tax on the entire amount of a delivery purchase, on the price of the food and on the price of the delivery, whereas sales tax should not be charged on the amount of the delivery.  Domino’s and Papa John’s make sure that they charge the sales tax separately.  As far as Kinko’s is concerned, I have talked to the employees and the manager as to why they charge sales tax on copies, faxes, and even services where I clearly do not get anything back, such as cutting and folding brochures.  All I get are blank stares.  I have called the corporate number, and all I got was a cookie-cutter response that “we charge sales tax on all our services.”

Whenever you make any big purchase and get it delivered, check your receipt and make sure you are paying the sales tax on the item purchase amount and not also on the delivery charge.  I have had furniture delivered, where the delivery charge can be as high as the price of the furniture itself sometimes, where the sales tax was applied to both. 

If anyone has made similar observations, if anyone knows where this “sales tax” revenue actually goes, or if anyone has ever gotten out of paying the sales tax, we would love to hear from you.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

First Peek Ultrasound recalls all 3D ultrasounds

Sep 30

Posted by firstpeek in Fun stuff | No Comments

In the largest recall of the industry, the Chicago-based 3D ultrasound studio, First Peek Ultrasound, has declared a nationwide recall of its 3D ultrasounds.

First Peek Ultrasound will recall over a thousand 3D ultrasounds, the company’s largest recall, to address problems with certain 3D ultrasounds that may be too cute to publish.

The owner of First Peek Ultrasound was found leaving the ultrasound studio, crossing Lake Street in Oak Park, IL, wearing dark sunglasses and a stethoscope to get away from the media. When pressed for a comment, he said:

It was never our intention, when we first started this company in 2008, that pregnant moms would be sending their baby’s 3D ultrasound images en masse over the latest gadgets and technology, such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and sites like baby-gaga.com and The Bump. We thought moms would just quietly show their baby’s pictures to other moms at a baby shower. Now, you can’t visit a pregnant woman’s Facebook page without being barraged by her 3D ultrasound pictures.

Experts in the field have stated that these “too-cute-to-publish” 3D ultrasound pictures and 4D ultrasound videos would cause internet accelerators (folks who do nothing but check out blogs and post the articles on other blogs) to get stuck and lead to a crash of the world wide web.

“The cuteness factor of the internet could accelerate out of control, leading to envy, malicious posting, and other bad things,” the AAIAAIA said (American Association of Internet Advisors And Industry Association).

The recall will involve popular ultrasound packages such as the First Peek Package, the top-selling 3D ultrasound package in the Chicago area, and the Gender Check, the best-selling 2D-3D hybrid, and the Premium Package, the “Lexus” of 3D ultrasound packages.

First Peek said it was still working with officials to find a remedy to fix the problem and said customers of First Peek Ultrasound could be notified about the recall as early as next week. First Peek spokesman, Sarah, said that until the company finds a fix, owners should take out the removable 3D ultrasound images from the main profile pictures of their Facebook page and not replace it.

AAAIAAIA (Another American Association of Internet Advisors And Industry Association) said that it had received reports of 103 incidents in which the internet may have become stuck on the Facebook pages involved. It was unclear how many led to crashes, but the inquiry was prompted by a highspeed crash in Chicago of a First Peek Ultrasound’s 3D ultrasound image being forwarded out of control on a personal mommyblog. As the cute baby pictures hit speeds exceeding 8000 kilobytes per second, the pregnant mom made a frantic 404 call and said the internet was stuck and they couldn’t stop the cuteness. The website was immediately pulled off the internet with a grinding halt.

“This is an urgent matter!” First Peek’s safety and recall manager, Josef, said in a statement. “For everyone’s sake, we strongly urge owners of these 3D ultrasound images to remove their cute baby pictures that could lead to unintended internet acceleration.”

3D ultrasound image that caused the first crash in Skokie:
3D ultrasound image that caused the first crash in Skokie

3D ultrasound that led to the high-speed crash in dowtown Chicago:
peace

Another less noteworthy recall that happened to involve Toyota, which was eerily similar to First Peek Ultrasound’s recall.

Should your 3D ultrasound be recalled? Please email us your cute 3D ultrasound pictures from First Peek Ultrasound to be included in our 3D ultrasound gallery.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

First Peek Ultrasound is now H1N1-compliant :/)\

Sep 25

Posted by firstpeek in Fun stuff | No Comments

First Peek Ultrasound is proud to be the first 3D ultrasound studio in the nation to declare that we are H1N1-compliant.

As our customers are pregnant women in Chicago, the Chicago suburbs, and the entire midwest, we need to make sure that we are not contributing to the H1N1 pandemic.

Here is what we are doing so far to ensure that we are H1N1-compliant.  At First Peek Ultrasound, you should not have to worry about catching, spreading, or receiving the swine flu at our facility.  This is the Pandemic Influenza Plan of First Peek Ultrasound.

  1. All employees of First Peek Ultrasound are required to have the flu shot, unless there are medical exceptions.
  2. When the swine flu vaccine is available, all employees will be required to get the swine flu vaccine.
  3. Employees are not allowed to come to work if they have symptoms of the flu or if they have a fever.  In these cases, another ultrasound technician will have to cover the shift, or in cases where all available employees are sick, appointments may need to be cancelled.
  4. Our ultrasound technicians use hand gel to sanitize their hands before seeing each customer.
  5. During the height of the swine flu pandemic outbreak, ultrasound technicians will wear a mask to protect spread of the virus from one customer to another.
  6. Any customer who is sick with flu symptoms or is known to have the swine flu will have to reschedule their appointment, in order to minimize the spread of the virus to other pregnant women.
  7. If a customer arrives to the clinic with obvious flu symptoms, such as coughing, sneezing, or a fever, then the customer will have to reschedule their appointment.  This is in order to protect our staff and other customers from getting sick.
  8. We encourage all of our customers to get the flu shot and the swine flu vaccine when it becomes available.

We encourage all other 3D ultrasound centers to follow our lead.  You can feel free to take and adapt our Pandemic Influenza Plan for your own 3D ultrasound center.  If you have any questions, please feel free to call or email us.

Do you have any other suggestions or recommendations on helping us become more H1N1-compliant?  Feel free to leave your comments below.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

First Peek Ultrasound is going green!

Sep 17

Posted by firstpeek in Fun stuff | No Comments

First Peek Ultrasound is going green! We recycle our paper and ink cartridges, and now we are motivated by this trend of going green and we want to get in on the action.

Here are the many ways that First Peek Ultrasound is more green than any other 3D ultrasound studio in the Chicago area or, as a matter of fact, in the country.

1. We reduce carbon emissions by being closer to where you live, as we are more centrally located in the Chicagoland area.

2. We use a laundry service that only uses organic detergent and does not use phosphates. This prevents the mass bleaching and death of coral reefs.

3. We recycle all our paper products (except the toilet paper).

4. Our 3D ultrasounds are dolphin-safe. We assure you, no dolphins will be killed during your 3D ultrasound session.

5. We turn off the lights when we leave the room.

6. We use those funny-looking spiral lightbulbs in the lamp in our ultrasound room.

7. If you do not want printouts of your pictures, we will gladly e-mail them to you instead.

8. Our ultrasound technicians eat healthy food and one of them is a vegetarian.

9. The owner of First Peek Ultrasound lives locally and so does not waste gasoline in driving to the ultrasound studio, thus reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

10. Our baby heartbeat teddy bears can be reused once your baby is born as a nice toy for your baby.

11. We use organic oils for our prenatal massage.

12. If you don’t want a receipt, we will not print one out for you. If every 3D ultrasound company across the nation did this, we would save six trees every year.

What other ways can you think of for us to go green? Please give us any recommendations you may have.

Tags: , , , , , , ,