It must be official; absolutely everything is moving to the cloud. It used to be that when you went for your ultrasound scans, you would receive a black and white print of your baby scan. The 2D scans are the ones the NHS do. They do not do 3D scans as those are not an essential antenatal scan.
Some people refer to 3D scans as souvenir scans, others as baby wellness scans. It depends on whether you get it done by a private clinic using qualified sonographers, or midwife sonographers.
In either case, the rise of cloud medical imaging services has arrived in Britain. It happened in 2018 when the American company [Trice Imaging Inc.] announced it had entered a distribution partnership agreement with HealthNetConnections (HNC). Now, the vast majority of baby scan clinics across Britain are using Tricefy. Some of the newer ultrasound equipment comes with this technology already integrated to make it easier for antenatal healthcare teams to share DICOM files with other healthcare professionals.
DICOM = Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine.
Within the Tricefy for Patients app, these show as a DIC file format. This file format is not for printing. It is for sharing with your healthcare team. They have different applications to open and manage these files.
For anyone with digital baby scans, the file format you will be interested in is the JPG file format. These are your 2D and 3D baby scan images. It is a print quality image file format.
The difference between a 2D and 3D scan is that 2D is black and white, the 3D has a gold-coloured layer applied to make it easier to see your unborn baby’s facial features. It looks like the real thing. It is multiple 2D images pieced together to form a life-like image, and then a filter is applied to give it the golden hue that makes it look like a photograph. You don’t actually have a golden fetus growing in your womb.
And get this… you can get baby scans at all three trimester stages. Great if you can afford to, but, more often than not, they will be gifted. Soon-to-be parents have plenty of essentials to put their money toward. These are a nicety as a keepsake, not an essential.
3D scans are souvenir scans and depending on the clinic you choose (based on the qualifications and experience of the staff), they can also be reassurance scans if you are getting scans done by a midwife who has chosen to leave the NHS to work in the private sector or at least, part-time to top their salary up. Seems to be happening a lot at the moment.
The ultrasound scans are done the same as the NHS does them. The only difference is the technology and the scan room, which is usually equipped with bigger screens for you and anyone you bring to see the baby on the big screen. These are 4D live scans. You can’t print those as those are uploaded as MP4 files. They are movies made from motion graphics. The difference between 3D to 4D is that 4D is 3D images + time. The 3D images refresh in real-time making it look like a movie.
For printing images, the 2D will be your early pregnancy scans, then 3D images from the second trimester onwards. The NHS cover the first early pregnancy scan (2D) at around 11 weeks. By the time you reach full-term, it is possible to have three scans. The early pregnancy scan, a second trimester scan where the gender can be revealed, then later from 24 weeks onwards, 4D scans can be done to let you see your baby move in the womb in real-time.
By the time you reach full-term, if your clinic does use the Tricefy for Patients app, you will have digital files to see. You can watch these on smart TVs with your friends and family, but as a keepsake, it makes sense to get them printed. Especially the golden effect 3D baby scans.
The Tricefy app does not have the option to “send to print”. You can share them with your contacts from within the app, but they can’t be printed without downloading.
The file format options within Tricefy for downloading are PDF, DIC, and PDF. PDF is for downloading your antenatal reports. JPG is for your 2D and 3D baby scans, and MP4 is for your 4D baby scan motion movie file. DIC can be ignored because that is for medical professionals.
Have Your 2D and 3D Baby Scans Printed and Framed Professionally
With the quality of digital imaging technology, it makes sense to print with the best photographic paper and professional ink that is intended to last a lifetime. A far stretch from what any home printer is capable of.
At The Picture Gallery, we have the technology on our website that lets you upload JPG files up to 20MB, and if you choose the print and frame option, you can include a caption box, such as “[baby name] at 8 weeks”, or for 3D scans “our first meet at 24 weeks” or “Couldn’t wait to meet you” (as examples). You can create your own captions.
With the print and frame option, you can choose from a single or double mount. All of our prints are designed for longevity. Our framing options ensure protection for the long term.
Will it Fade?
Not in this lifetime or your babies. The high quality of archival inks on 290gsm photographic paper is dry mounted to prevent wrinkling inside the frame. Our print and frame service brings new meaning to “keepsakes”. These will last a lifetime.
And, we can do multi-aperture framing too so if you do have more than the one baby scan that you would like to print and frame, we can help you frame them all in the one multi-aperture photo frame with inks and photographic paper that is engineered for souvenir purposes.