4-D Ultrasound = Cute Pictures and Nothing Else

I was driving home yesterday and heard an ad on the radio for 4-D ultrasounds that had me rolling my eyes.  Admittedly, it doesn't take much to get me rolling my eyes.  Call me cynical or call me educated (I prefer the latter) but advertising that a parent can see their child's personality through 4-D imaging just does not sit right with me.

I don't have a problem with 4-D ultrasounds so let me get that point across right away.  Marcus and I chose not to get one mostly because we didn't want to know the sex of the baby and that would have been one more temptation.  Plus, we're old school.  We didn't think it necessary to see a picture of our baby before (s)he was born.

So, getting back to the topic at hand.  The problem I had with the ad is it set about convincing people to spend additional money on the already expensive process of having a baby by claiming they would be able to see their child's personality with a 4-D image.  At the end of the ad a "grandmother" came on saying that she could already tell what kind of personality the baby had because it started sucking its thumb, putting its hand over its face, and stretching.  So, let me get this straight.  Sucking thumbs, covering a face, and stretching are all indicators of personality?  My apologies.  I thought that was called "being a fetus."

If you'll excuse me for a moment I'm about to get Mr. Wizard on your ass.  Or, if you're of a younger generation, Bill Nye the Science Guy.  Same thing.  Anyway, babies are born with almost all of their brain cells all of which are inactive.  After the baby is born stimulation from caregivers, such as love and affection, activate the connections between the cells causing their personality to shine through.  So, while the baby already has a predisposition for one personality or another it's not until after they are born and are stimulated that a personality will be apparent.  Thus, the 4-D ultrasound ad defies logic.

In math terms we can look at it this way:  Baby + Emotional Stimuli = Personality or, Fetus + Non-Existent Emotional Stimuli ≠ Personality

So, with that, I leave you.  Now, go get a 4-D ultrasound and enjoy the beautiful pictures but don't expect to be able to figure out who is in there...unless you're hoping for a thumb-sucking, mama's boy in which case you may have more issues than you think.