Adverts for ultrasound companies have been banned for misrepresenting the extent to which the scans may present reassurance in regards to the wellbeing of an unborn child.
The adverts for London Private Ultrasound (LPU) and the Meet Your Miracle personal scan studio supplied numerous scans together with a “reassurance scan” costing £100 “to reduce your parental anxiety and to confirm a normal progress of your pregnancy”.
The web site additionally supplied a “Reassurance, dating Scan + Wellbeing check” for £59.00.
But the Advertising Standards Agency dominated this was more likely to mislead mother and father – who have been “more likely to be anxious or vulnerable” – given the extent to which a scan from seven weeks may assess the well being and wellbeing of an embryo.
Both rulings are a part of a wider investigation by the ASA into personal being pregnant ultrasound scans.
Ultrasound London Ltd, buying and selling as LPU, stated its advert was by no means supposed to recommend the reassurance scan supplied further medical info to the affected person however moderately to handle any issues the affected person might have.
Meet Your Miracle stated most sufferers attended the scan “with a singular concern of whether the baby was alive”.
It stated a easy measure of wellbeing may be whether or not the infant is alive, which is feasible to find out by observing a heartbeat, which is seen at seven weeks.
LPU stated it instantly eliminated the itemizing for the scan from its web site.
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The ruling
The ASA stated LPU’s advert was not sufficiently clear that there have been variations or limitations within the extent of attainable assessments over the course of being pregnant, notably at an early stage from eight weeks.
It dominated: “Given the emphasis on providing ‘reassurance’ and using the scan to ‘confirm the health of the foetus, and in the absence of further information clarifying what the scan assessed and was able to perceive, particularly from the very early stage of eight weeks into a pregnancy, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead.”
The ASA dominated Meet Your Miracle’s advert had additionally “not made sufficiently clear the extent to which it could provide ‘reassurance’ or determine the ‘wellbeing’ of an embryo, particularly from the early stage of pregnancy from seven weeks”.
The watchdog banned each adverts from showing once more.
Source: information.sky.com”