Well, yeah. I had three sonograms with my pregnancy and I was seen only by a certified midwife, outside of the care of an obstetrician. I found out the sex at 32 weeks. She hid in the sonogram beforehand.
I think most midwives (and responsible OBs and FP doctors) won't subject the baby to an ultrasound, just to determine the sex. I know MY doctor won't do that. Most responsible birth and preg attendents only do an ultrasound if it is medically neccesary.
Exactly what Maggie said. If you study ultrasound you will realize they have not been proven safe, which is not to say they have been proven unsafe, but do you want the risk? And there is speculation about hazards. The midwife my friend is seeing doesn't even announce the sex AT the birth, she figures the parents can figure it out on their own. And she (midwife) is pregnant and doesn't know the sex. There is something nice about not knowing, I think. Personally, I find it show's a level of concern for the baby. However, in general I think people just don't understand ultrasound, so that doesn't mean that knowing the sex makes one careless so much as uninformed (and perhaps the ultrasound was medically necessary and knowing the sex a byproduct of the scan).
Oh, and I read in one book (I can't remember which right now, I've read so many) which once you hear it you go ooooh yeah, but it's a bit creepy nonetheless. If you have an ultrasound and your baby is a girl, every egg she has will have an ultrasound. In effect if your grandmother had had an ultrasound with your mother, you would have had one as well.
You get to choose what happens to you during your pregnancy. If you want an ultrasound, go have one. The risks have not been proven, but it has not been proven safe, either. That doppler heartbeat tool thingy is also ultrasound, you know. Many women have dozens of scans in each pregnancy, some have just one or two, and some have none. But it's your body, and it's your choice. If your midwife gets bent out of shape if you want to go elsewhere for any aspect of your prenatal care, fire her and find one who respects your ability to make your own informed decisions. Most direct entry midwives are totally cool with that. Most certified nurse midwives have a more medicalized point of view about prenatal care (they have to work directly with MDs in my state) and would most likely insist upon all the standard tests and procedures anyway, whether you want them or not.
new research has disproven the myth that we are born with a limited number of ova. Now they know that we do indeed make more eggs throughout our lifetimes. Pretty neat, huh?
