Ultrasounds adverts banned for deceptive dad and mom about capacity to reassure
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dverts for ultrasound providers have been banned for misrepresenting the extent to which scans can present reassurance concerning the wellbeing of an unborn child.
The advertisements for London Private Ultrasound (LPU) and the Meet Your Miracle personal scan studio have been each more likely to mislead dad and mom concerning the extent to which they might present reassurance a couple of child’s well being, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) dominated.
Both rulings are a part of a wider investigation by the ASA into personal being pregnant ultrasound scans.
The web site for LPU, seen final May, stated the service supplied varied 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 stated this was appropriate “for parents to be if you would like to confirm a healthy pregnancy, if you have pain or bleeding or if you cannot feel the baby’s movements.
“This scan is not routinely offered in NHS but at LPU we offer you a reassurance scan to provide you a piece (sic) of mind about the health of your baby and your pregnancy.”
Meet Your Miracle’s web site, additionally seen final May, stated: “Award winning pregnancy scan studios offering a range of ultrasound scans including wellbeing checks for you and your family”, and “Reassurance, dating Scan + Wellbeing check £59.00.”
The ASA investigated whether or not the advertisements misleadingly represented the extent to which the scans may assess the well being and wellbeing of an embryo from seven or eight weeks.
Ultrasound London Ltd, buying and selling as LPU, stated its advert was by no means supposed to counsel the reassurance scan offered additional medical data to the affected person however reasonably to handle any issues the affected person might have.
LPU stated it instantly eliminated the itemizing for the scan from their web site.
Meet Your Miracle stated a easy measure of wellbeing may be whether or not the infant is alive, which is feasible to find out from observing a heartbeat, which is seen at seven weeks.
The ASA stated LPU’s advert was not sufficiently clear that there have been variations or limitations within the extent of potential assessments over the course of being pregnant, significantly 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 advertisements from showing once more.