Just in case Alison does not have any reference material about ultrasound effects I do have a couple of references of interest. Journal of Nurse-Midwifery Vol. 29, No. 4 July/August 1984 Fetal Effects of Ultrasound: A Growing Controversy By Doris Haire FDA Consumer, March 1983, Department of Health and Human Services The Unknowns of Ultrasound By Richard C. Thompson Federal Register, Vol. 44, No. 31, Tuesday, February 13, 1979 Docket No. 78N-0288 Diagnostic Ultrasound Equipment Department of Health, Education and Welfare Just for information sake I would like to add my .02 on ultrasound. I have recently spoken with a physics professor here at the Uni. of Illinois about ultrasound. I am not a sceintist and therefore do not understand all the discussion about ultrasound but this is what he told me. He says that Ultrasound is radiation. It is aucustic radiation. It is supposedly non-ionizing radiation. Non-ionizing means that it does not break molecular bonds. However he told me that in the human body most of the molecular bonds are with hydrogen which makes a very weak bond and can be broken with ultrasound. He stated that he has a colleage in Germany who has been working with the effects of ultrasound on human DNA. As we all know DNA is shaped in a spiral. WHen it is subjected to ultrasound his colleage states that it will temporarily unspiral and become like a strate ladder. He also mentioned that ultrasound is used in a procedure to remove kidney stones. The ultrasound will break the calcium carbonate bonds of the stones and the people being treated sometimes can feelk it happening. So much for the non-ionizing theory. He stated to me that he would not subject any of his 6 children, his wife nor himself to any type of ultrasound unless it would mean their lives. "Too many physists have died with this exposure doing their research." He also stated that it will be another 50 years before we really know what the effects of ultrasound are. Slight changes in DNA and molecular structures take generations to show up. O.K. I will get down off the soap box. Becky Hanson, BA, LLLI, AAHCC, ICEA & MOM X 2