Fetal Photo Studios. In small offices and shopping malls across America, uncertified technicians, using loosely regulated equipment, are parlaying 3-D ultrasound technologies into bustling, neonatal photo studios, reports Sam Lubell in The New York Times. "Women love it," says Matt Evans, the proud owner of Baby Insight, www.baby-insight.com. "They get to see their baby and have an emotional experience with their baby." Uh, fetus. Matt, who's been in business for about a year and-a-half now, says "his technicians have performed more than 2,000 ultrasounds." Shirlesa Glaspie is one expectant mom who is just thrilled by the concept: "He's yawning, he sticks his tongue out, he smiles ... It gives you a realization of what's going on when your stomach is ...bouncing around," she says.

Matt's top-of-the-line package, "for $260, includes a video with background music, one 8-by-10, two 5-by-7 and 10 wallet-size color photos, four announcement cards and a chance for friends and family members to view the ultrasound images as they are produced on a large screen in the company's theater room." Matt uses 3-D ultrasound machines, said to be "excellent at capturing realistic still or video images of face and body." He supposes that more and more women will go for such portraiture as the technology improves, and he's not alone in that supposition. Baby Insight has competitors including Peek-A-Boo, Womb With A View, FetalFotos, Prenatal Peek, and Womb's Window.

Doctors are divided on whether this trend is a healthy one. "What if something is wrong with the baby?" says Dr. Lawrence Platt of U.C.L.A. "Do these people know what to tell you?" Not only that, but the equipment used, while great for portaits, is not designed to probe for potential health problems to begin with. And do the extracurricular ultrasounds might pose extraordinary health risks? No, according to Dr. Haig Yeni-Komshian: "There's no radiation involved with ultrasounds, just high-frequency waves." Matt Evans says his ultrasounds do not replace those performed by doctors; in fact, medical images typically are done at 20 weeks, while the nonmedical variety is done much later (the "cutest" results, says Baby Insight, are achieved at between 28 and 32 weeks). "The F.D.A. has scared a lot of women, " says Matt, "but from my experience, women aren't worried." He says he "plans to open 75 more centers nationwide by the end of 2005."

Tim Manners, editor