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Words Used During Prenatal Ultrasound Might Affect Parenting Later

By Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporter

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on July 29, 2025.

TUESDAY, July 29, 2025 — An ultrasound is typically a parent-to-be’s first glimpse of their child.

New research suggests that the words hospital staff use to describe the fetus during an ultrasound can have an impact on later parenting — for good or ill.

For example, if an ultrasound’s poor quality is blamed on an “uncooperative” fetus, it might set the stage for less-invested parenting, the study suggests.

“The words used in these conversations with ultrasound technicians or obstetric sonographers — whom we consider experts on fetal development — get absorbed and influence who you think your child is before they’re even born,” explained study lead author Kaylin Hill.

She’s an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

"Our research suggests the descriptions offered by prenatal care providers stick with parents," she said in a university news release. “When we asked prospective parents to describe their baby, 70% of them indicated their perception was related to a prenatal care visit."

The findings were published recently in Communications Psychology.

The study focused on 320 pregnant women interviewed at between 11 and 38 weeks gestation. Each provided their views on their (as yet unborn) baby at that time.

The women were later asked to assess their toddler’s behavioral and emotional difficulties at 18 months of age.

When a mom-to-be offered up a more positive view of her unborn child, that was typically correlated with her describing that child as having fewer emotional or behavioral issues at 18 months, the study found.

On the flip side, women who had described their unborn baby in a more negative way tended to have toddlers they viewed as having trouble regulating their emotions.

These included issues around attention, being emotionally withdrawn, poor sleep, acting out or various physical symptoms, Hill’s team explained.

Words used during an ultrasound procedure seemed related to these trends.

In an experiment conducted with 161 of the study participants, women were told by an ultrasound technician that an ultrasound was of poor quality.

The issue was described in one of three ways: Technical issues were to blame; the fetus was “uncooperative” during the procedure (leading to a poor-quality ultrasound); or no worries, a follow-up ultrasound might produce a better result.

When their fetus was described as “uncooperative,” moms tended to later view their baby in more negative terms, compared to the other two scenarios.

“Of course we want to help support parents,” Hill said, “and this research suggests a first step may be to talk with health care providers, to highlight the importance of these seemingly small differences in word choice during salient moments with pregnant patients.”

She said these early impressions might also be a minor but crucial ingredient in a woman’s odds for postpartum depression.

“One of the highest risk periods for depression is the perinatal period, where individuals are experiencing changes across so many levels of functioning — physical, psychological and social,” Hill said.

“If an ultrasound experience is impacting how an individual sees their child, that could potentially influence aspects of the caregiving relationship, which is really important for both parent and child outcomes over time,” she added.

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Posted July 2025

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