You’ll hardly find free online obstetric ultrasound courses on the whole internet, so we decided to solve that problem by creating this detailed post. The Ultrasound machine has always been one of the greatest inventions of humankind.
Imagine what life was like for pregnant women of the 1940s below, before this great machine was created, imagine the number of birth complications that must have occurred. And, child-death that could have been avoided during those days and years.
Also, hypnobirthing classes are now one of the ways pregnant women have learned to give birth without feeling the pains of childbirth, amazing right?
Though Ultrasound was invented in the mid-1950s the British hospitals never accepted it completely until the 1970s, the years had to run deeper in the 1970s before American hospitals adapted fully to it. An ultrasound machine was initially designed to observe a high-risk or complicated pregnancy.
But it is currently used for a lot more now like to confirm a viable pregnancy, see the progress of the pregnancy, and an evaluation of the fetal position.
Another joyful part for a mother is giving birth, there is this joy that fills the mum’s heart when this fetus that was in her womb comes out healthy. She wants to take care of him/her, pamper him, especially if it is her first baby, but sometimes there are questions on how to properly become a mother.
This new mother wants to know how to breastfeed her child, how to eat healthy food, and the answer is right on their doorstep.
That said, online classes have shaped the way we receive education in our modern world, whether it is to learn how to breastfeed or online books a pregnant mother can read. You just get the luxury of it from the comfort of your home.
Some midwives and nurses don’t have to go a long distance before they can grab one or two nursing courses online. And, you can do the same in these free online obstetric ultrasound courses.
Before we jump on the bandwagon to show you these courses, let’s understand what this Obstetric Ultrasound is all about.
What is obstetric ultrasound?
Obstetric Ultrasound which is also known as prenatal ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to produce a pictorial view of the developing fetus or embryo on the computer. This machine goes on to monitor the mother’s uterus health, her blood flow, and her ovaries.
The process also tells the technician, known as a sonographer, the progress of the pregnancy, an estimate of the pregnancy age, and the possible date of delivery.
There are different types of Obstetric Ultrasound scans, and you’ll be seeing and learning some of them in these free online obstetric ultrasound courses. They include;
The Dating Scan
This is the first time the pregnant woman is meeting the sonographer to scan her womb, this normally takes place within week 7 – week 10, to predict the gestational age of the pregnancy. This prediction helps the doctor to advise the patient on what to do as time goes on.
Furthermore, during this period the sonographer can predict when the woman is likely to give birth, and if the baby is growing appropriately. The sonographer will also check if it is only one baby in the womb or more.
You’ll learn how to do all of these and more in these free online obstetric ultrasound courses.
First-Trimester Combined Screening
This screening takes place between week 11 to week 14 of the pregnancy. It is in this screening that you see if there is any risk of the chromosomal condition in the baby and congenital disabilities.
In these free online obstetric ultrasound courses, you’ll see how the sonographer uses two steps for this screening, which are an ultrasound scan and a blood test. With this test, the health care provider of your patient can determine if their fetus has the risk of getting trisomy 18 or down syndrome.
Whatever comes out from the test will help your patient decide whether to do more diagnostic tests or get treatment during the pregnancy and maybe after it too. Remember, this screening is only to see if the baby of the woman has a high risk of getting trisomy 18 or down syndrome, it doesn’t mean the baby already has it.
Gender Scan
This is another scan you’ll be learning in these free online obstetric ultrasound courses. Most women always want to know the gender of their baby before it comes out, research shows that more than 69% of women want to know.
You might even hear questions like “can you see the gender?” in the “dating scan” period. There is this feeling it comes with the mother.
This scan takes place from week 18 to week 22 of the pregnancy, but you shouldn’t always expect it to be 100% accurate. Because these are predictions made with different factors.
It is in this gender Scan that the heart rate, the growth of the fetus, and the position of the placenta are examined.
Third-Trimester Scan
The Third-Trimester Scan is optional depending on the patient’s pregnancy progress. In these free online obstetric ultrasound courses, you’ll learn to advise your patient to carry on another scan or to maintain a pregnancy routine.
But, if the patient insists on an extra scan, you can go ahead and do the Third-Trimester Scan. You’ll help the patient to see the growth of the baby, see the activity of the placenta, and the position of the baby.
Also, if the woman is carrying a twin or more than a baby in her, she will need the Third-Trimester Scan, if she is type 2 diabetic she will also need it. If there has been a history of complicated pregnancies and she is older than 35 years she would also need it.
Benefits of free online obstetric ultrasound courses
Here are some of the benefits of free online obstetric ultrasound courses;
- They are free to learn, and you can have access to their course materials without paying a dime.
- Most of them are convenient for you, which means you can take them from anywhere in the world.
- Most of them are self-paced. You can start and finish them whenever you want.
- You can advance your career path after learning them or even start practicing in a hospital.
How to find ultrasound training videos
All the free online obstetric ultrasound courses we listed here are free online obstetric ultrasound videos. So you can choose a class that best describes your desire and start learning.
Free Online Obstetric Ultrasound Courses
This is the list of the free online obstetric ultrasound courses
- Basic Pregnancy Ultrasound Course
- Basic Training Online | Obstetric Ultrasound
- Certificate in Basic Ultrasound for Obstetrics and Gynaecology (Ireland)
- Obstetric Ultrasound Lectures
- USG – Obstetric Ultrasound
1. Basic Pregnancy Ultrasound Course
This is one of the free online obstetric ultrasound courses that is offered by the University of Washington that takes 2 weeks to complete. With ultrasound, sonography can identify if there is any complication with the pregnancy that might put the mother or the fetus at risk.
Most low-income countries have always experienced a shortage of sonographers and some hospitals in these countries don’t have ultrasound machines. And this makes the mother not understand some basic things happening to the fetus in the womb.
Even if some complications can easily be avoided, nobody will know about them, and this ignorance might lead to complications during pregnancy or even the death of the fetus. That’s why this basic obstetric ultrasound course was created, so you can stay anywhere and learn how to use and interpret ultrasound like a sonographer and radiologist respectively.
This course is best for healthcare workers who want to learn to perform the basic pregnancy ultrasound test in any part of the world. This is one of the free online obstetric ultrasound courses that has lots of videos and course materials for your learning.
As you are going through the course a practicing ultrasound professional should be around to guide you properly. The major aim of this course is for you to reduce the rate of death in pregnant women and their infants in these low-income countries.
This course is also nice for healthcare workers that don’t have formal ultrasound training in their country. 18 great videos will help you to have a basic understanding of prenatal ultrasound.
This is one of the free online obstetric ultrasound courses where the first video welcomes and introduces you to the course. Where your instructor will show you the topics you’ll be learning in this course such as;
- How ultrasound works
- How you can effectively use ultrasound equipment
- How you can see the anatomy of the fetus in the 1s, 2nd, and 3rd trimesters.
- You to use ultrasound to determine pregnancy dating
- Finally, how to know the normal and abnormal appearance of the placenta, cervix, and amniotic fluid.
She will also show you other topics that will be learned in this course. In the last video, you’ll see a sonographer that is practically scanning a pregnant patient.
You’ll see how she made her patient comfortable during the examination, how she measured the detailed biometry and amniotic fluid index, and how she performed the ROBUST scan. This is one of the free online obstetric ultrasound courses that you’ll be given a handbook that has to do with all the materials you’ll need to successfully complete the course.
When you’re done with the course you’ll be assessed, to know how much of the knowledge you grabbed. The University of Washington advised that you take at least 40 hours of scanning experience with a sonographer monitoring you before undertaking unsupervised scanning.
2. Basic Training Online | Obstetric Ultrasound
This ultrasound course online was created by the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology (ISUOG), a charitable organization. It’s also the leading international society of experts in ultrasound for obstetrics and gynecology.
This is one of the free online obstetric ultrasound courses where you have access to 30 lectures. It teaches you the theoretical knowledge to examine and interpret ultrasound images without supervision.
The first lecture starts by teaching you the physical principles of ultrasound imaging including safety, where you’ll learn how ultrasound imaging is generated. You’ll also learn to differentiate ultrasound modes used for imaging.
The second lecture explains transducers, and how images are produced on ultrasound equipment, knobology, and scanning planes.
This is one of the free online obstetric ultrasound courses where you’ll see a typical appearance of the most common pathologies in the adnexae. This lecture is the last class you’ll be having before you’ll learn to write a detailed and accurate obstetric ultrasound report.
3. Certificate in Basic Ultrasound for Obstetrics and Gynaecology (Ireland)
This is one of the free online ultrasound courses with certificates that combines both theoretical and practical learning. Their learning structure will help you to efficiently perform gynecological and obstetric ultrasound examinations.
Further, the course is structured to help you balance both the workload in the clinic and participating in the course. This course will teach you to effectively select ultrasound equipment that is best for an examination, and how to operate it.
You’ll also learn to define the morphological features of a normal early pregnancy, and you’ll be able to diagnose early pregnancy abnormalities, miscarriage, and ectopic pregnancy. This is one of the free online obstetric ultrasound courses that will teach you a lot of things, and it is an interactive course.
However, this is exclusively for Doctors going through basic specialist training in Obstetrics and gynecology in Ireland. And, when you’ve completed your lessons, you’ll be given an Objective Structured Assessments for Technical Skills (OSATS).
The course takes a year to complete, you’ve to join the waiting list for you to be reminded about the next time the course will start.
4. Obstetric Ultrasound Lectures
This is one of the free online obstetric ultrasound courses that have 12 Ultrasound YouTube videos. You’ll easily learn about Obstetric doppler, where your lecturer will be sharing some principles guiding doppler, uterine artery doppler.
You’ll also learn about umbilical artery doppler, middle cerebral artery doppler, and ductus venosus doppler. In the second lecture, you’ll learn important ultrasound signs, including intradecidual sac sign, double decidual sac sign, empty amnion sign, expanded amnion sign, diamond ring sign, double bleb sign, etc.
In the third lecture, you’ll learn 6 steps to basic fetal ultrasound examination, in the fourth lecture you’ll learn everything you need to know about the chorionic bump. In the final classes, you’ll learn about ultrasound of normal early pregnancy, and early pregnancy failure (a simplified ultrasound approach).
5. USG – Obstetric Ultrasound
This is one of the free online obstetric ultrasound courses that have 15 Obstetric Ultrasound YouTube videos. It’ll start by teaching you fetal abdominal abnormalities where you’ll learn to review normal fetal abdominal anatomy.
Moreover, you’ll learn gastrointestinal tract and its anomalies, abdominal and ventral wall defects, you’ll see a list of common abdominal masses detected inutero, and you’ll discuss common variants. In the second class, you’ll learn about the Doppler examination of the detailed heart.
Your instructor, Jill Beithon, a registered Sonographer, will teach you how blood flows through the detailed heart in this second lecture video. She will also teach you color dopplers, and how color can help you in obstetric ultrasound.
In the third lecture, you’ll learn about fetal anomalies, where Ahmed Al-malt will be handling you in this class. For you to even know how the abnormal fetal abdomen looks, you need to know how the normal abdomen looks.
This is one of the free online obstetric ultrasound courses where your instructor will first start by showing you a normal fetal abdomen. Even though the heart is different from the topic, your Instructor had to teach some important concepts about the fetal heart to help you understand this class better.
Your instructor will also teach you some abdominal wall defects such as; Gastroschisis, Omphalocele, Body Stalk Anomaly, Exstrophy. In the fourth class, you’ll learn about fetal heart case studies, while you’ll learn part 1 of fetal heart screening in the fifth video.
This is one of the free online obstetric ultrasound courses where, in the last class, you’ll learn about the OB fetal survey, where your instructor Jane J.K. Burns will teach you about Fetal Environmental, Biometric, and Anatomic Survey.
She will first teach you the first thing to do when you put the transducer down, which is to look for the heartbeat, you have to first confirm that there is a heart beating, before you can proceed with your exam.
This is one of the free online obstetric ultrasound courses that is accredited by ACCME (Academic Council for Continuing Medical Education).
Free Online Obstetric Ultrasound Courses – FAQs
Can I learn ultrasound online?
Yes, you can learn ultrasound online, and we have listed 5 free online obstetric ultrasound courses.
How can I practice ultrasound?
If you attentively follow the video steps in these courses you’ll learn how to effectively practice ultrasound.
Vielen, viele Krankheiten hätten vermieden werden können. Deswegen ist das Ultraschallgerät heute auch so wichtig. Ich weiß nicht, wie Geburtshelfer das damals gemacht haben.
me interesa el curso en linea.
Puedes aplicar.
Me interesa un curso de Ultrasonido len línea gratis y con reconocimiento de la SEP