By Lovetti Lafua
Nurse • Midwife • Biologist • Human Optimization Researcher

Modern pregnancy care treats ultrasound as indispensable, yet its origins are far from the clinical certainty it now claims. The story begins not in a maternity ward, but in industrial engineering.

In 1955, Scottish obstetrician Ian Donald experimented with an ultrasound device originally designed to detect flaws in metal. Using removed tumors and a piece of beef as a comparison sample, he noticed that different tissues produced different sound echoes. This discovery sparked interest. Soon, ultrasound was being used on women with abdominal tumors and not long after, on pregnant women.

Professor Ian Donald using his early ultrasound scan machine

Medical journals quickly embraced the technology, and its use spread internationally. What followed, however, was not careful scientific validation, but enthusiastic adoption driven by assumption, authority, and repetition.

History had already shown this pattern. X-rays, once celebrated as essential to pregnancy care, were used routinely for decades before being linked to childhood cancers. Yet ultrasound followed a nearly identical path: rapid acceptance, bold claims, and minimal long-term safety data.

By the late 1970s and early 1980s, authoritative voices in obstetrics declared ultrasound indispensable asserting that modern pregnancy care could not exist without it and that all pregnancies should be screened routinely. These declarations were not supported by solid evidence at the time, yet they shaped policy, training, and public expectation.

Commercial interests further fueled this momentum. Manufacturers advertised ultrasound as “absolutely safe,” claims that were later challenged and ruled misleading. Meanwhile, private businesses began offering non-medical scan baby’s first photo,” souvenir videos, and entertainment ultrasounds-blurring the line between healthcare and consumer experience.

As a result, ultrasound became normalized not because it had been proven necessary or harmless, but because it had become familiar.

Today, few women are told that routine ultrasound entered standard care without ever passing the rigorous tests normally required of widespread medical screening. What began as an industrial experiment became a global practicewithout the science ever catching up to the enthusiasm.