When you become in for your ultrasound beefcake scan, aka the first time you see your baby developed across a gestational sac with a heartbeat, yous probably have images in your head of a perfect button nose, butterball cheeks and a sweet smiling — just like how she might look at birth. But the reality is most ultrasounds taken between 18 and 22 weeks, even 3D ones, don't come out that way.

So if you're an expecting parent thrown off by the images yous come across on the screen, starting time know that you're certainly non solitary. Many parents have posted online about seeing a strange or just plain creepy face up at the beefcake scan. And second, several perfectly normal reasons tin explain why the sonogram turned out that way. Hither'due south why the ultrasound might non show your babe looking similar a little angel only nevertheless.

Does baby actually look like the 3D ultrasound?

3D ultrasounds endeavor to show facial features instead of just a two-dimensional (cross-sectional) view of your womb, but they still rely on soundwaves to piece together an image — which isn't always perfect.

These soundwaves bounciness off internal organs and fluids, and a reckoner converts the echoes into a second image. Combining multiple 2nd images taken at dissimilar angles and then creates that third dimension, only the ultrasound doesn't ever go an accurate read on some of the surfaces.

In other words, it's not similar a camera on your phone. So while 3D ultrasounds tin can serve every bit a helpful diagnostic tool in some scenarios, you can potentially chalk up any strange faces you lot meet to the way the technology works.

Other reasons your infant's face looks weird on an ultrasound

Regardless of the blazon of ultrasound you become, sometimes the images can plough out a picayune foreign. No cause for alarm! Hither are a few perfectly normal reasons your baby's nose, confront or head will expect different than you lot expected.

Baby is still developing body fat.

At this stage in pregnancy, your baby's skin still looks transparent since she has and then fiddling torso fat. Because there's not equally much roofing the bones, her confront might wait more than angular.

Baby'due south face is turned toward the uterine wall.

If your baby is facing away from your belly during an ultrasound, the sound waves might reveal simply two-thirds or half of her face, which can expect a piffling odd.

Infant's face is covered past another body part.

Like to what'll happen if her face up is turned, a confront partially covered past an arm or another limb could besides look strange.

Baby's soft spot is actually big.

The soft spot that your baby has at birth exists during pregnancy besides, and you might actually see this gap in the skull during your commencement anatomy browse. Information technology tin can look like a big, black spot on the superlative of her head and slit down to her nose.

And so there you take it: A creepy face at 20 weeks is well-nigh never crusade for concern. The fetus at this phase is nonetheless growing into a cute-equally-a-button baby, but still has more than 4 months to go.

That said, enquire questions and voice any concerns earlier you lot go out your ultrasound appointment. Being reassured that your baby is fine will help you sleep ameliorate (no thing how scary your sonogram might have been) so you tin can go back to dreaming of big optics and tiny toddler toes.