Forget phones and laptops, even ultrasounds couldn’t escape technological advances. Japanese firm FASOTEC has introduced 3D fetuses as a keepsake for expectant parents.
o, you don’t need to go to a cinema for this one; it’s happening in pregnancy clinics across Japan. Two-dimensional ultrasound scans could soon become a thing of the past for expectant parents, as a craze for three-dimensional model of the unborn baby’s sweeps Japan. These 3-D models don’t just help doctors monitor the growth of the fetus, they are also becoming a quirky pregnancy memento for the parents. Nor not only can one see their unborn child, they can also hold it before it is even born!
Japanese firm FASOTEC which offers this service, called ‘Shape of an Angel’ uses a computerised layering technique to construct a three-dimensional representation of the fetus from the MRI scan. The result is a nine-centimeter white resin model, encased in a transparent block that takes the shape of the mother’s body. The ideal time for a scan is in the eighth or ninth month of pregnancy.
The result is a nine-centimeter white resin model, encased in a transparent block that takes the shape of the mother’s body
Although it comes at a high price of 100,000 yen ($1,270), more and more mothers are opting for the 3D ultrasound purely for non-medical purposes. “As it is only once in a lifetime that you are pregnant with that child, we received requests for these kind of models from pregnant women who do not want to forget the feelings and experience of that time,” said Tomohiro Kinoshita of FASOTEC.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg2JRF4hJW0[/youtube]
The demand for the models is so high that ‘sonogram studios’ have cropped up across Japan, outside of a hospital or clinic, to provide these ultrasounds for aesthetic keepsakes. Miniature versions are also available, that are then used as mobile accessories. A cheaper version (50,000 yen) offering a 3D model of just the unborn baby’s face will become available from 2013.
