Advice on x-ray during pregnancy

SmilingBluEyes · Feb 22, 2005

My advice is you bring this up w/your OB or midwife. Chances are, little to no harm was done. But ask that person; they are the authority here. Oh and congratulations on your pregnancy. I wish you the best.

lifesaverwv · Feb 22, 2005

My daughter who is 24 has had problems with kidney stones. About 6 weeks after she got married her hubby took her to the hospital because she was in severe pain due to a kidney stone. The nurse asked her if she was pregnant & Brooke said she didn't think so. They did the IVP & a few days later Brooke calls & says she is pregnant. Being a nurse & knowing what x-rays could due to a forming fetus I was sick! She got an appt to see an OB doc 2 weeks later & he did an ultrasound. It turns out that Brooke was 3 weeks pregnant when she had the IVP! Her doc said she'd probably be fine & if the x-ray would have caused a problem with the baby then she would already have miscarried.

Anyway, I have a friend to is going to med school. She found out that the radiation from an IVP would be a very small amt. It is known to possibly cause birth defects if she would have had the IVP when she was between 8 to 15 weeks pregnant. All her OB checks have been fine. She is now 34 weeks pregnant & there are no problems noted with the baby. I hope this has eased your mind some.

Gompers, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2005

My father has worked in radiology for 40 years, and according to him the amount of radiation used in today's X-rays is nothing compared to when he first started. I suppose if someone was exposed to lots of X-rays during pregnancy it could cause some birth defects, but just a couple probably isn't going to hurt.

My mother actually had a KUB done when she was about seven month's pregnant with me! They were ruling out twins because she was measuring very big, and this was before ultrasounds. Her mother had an undiagnosed twin pregnancy (only heard one heartbeat, or only LOOKED for one, during her pregnancy) so they just wanted to cover their bases. (My mom later admitted she was so big because she was enjoying "getting fat" and was eating like crazy, but was too embarrassed to tell the doctor! Geez, thanks mom!!!)

It's an awesome X-ray too, we still have it! There I am, curled up in my mother's abdomen! I'm dying to find a place that can turn it into a print so I can frame it without needing to put a light behind it.

jer_sd · Feb 23, 2005

Again let your provider know. The first trimester is the most radiosensitive time during fetal development. But here is the kicker, we all know radiation can cause problems...we just can't say for sure what ammount will cause problems. Theoreticaly if you loose the pregnancy radiation may have had an effect but chances are that radiation did not cause it. But to make you feel better the ammount of radiation you recieved from a two view chest x-ray is roughly comparable to flying roundtrip from New York to LA. (cosmic radiation is one we never think about.) Just immagine all the flight attendants working when pregnanct. One thing I would recomend is contacting the facility where you had the x-ray preformed (or have your doc/midwife) and let them know that a woman of childbearing age reieved x-rays with out shilding and you had an undiagnosed pregnanacy.

Jeremy

My father has worked in radiology for 40 years, and according to him the amount of radiation used in today's X-rays is nothing compared to when he first started. I suppose if someone was exposed to lots of X-rays during pregnancy it could cause some birth defects, but just a couple probably isn't going to hurt.
My mother actually had a KUB done when she was about seven month's pregnant with me! They were ruling out twins because she was measuring very big, and this was before ultrasounds. Her mother had an undiagnosed twin pregnancy (only heard one heartbeat, or only LOOKED for one, during her pregnancy) so they just wanted to cover their bases. (My mom later admitted she was so big because she was enjoying "getting fat" and was eating like crazy, but was too embarrassed to tell the doctor! Geez, thanks mom!!!)
It's an awesome X-ray too, we still have it! There I am, curled up in my mother's abdomen! I'm dying to find a place that can turn it into a print so I can frame it without needing to put a light behind it.