Photo studio in utero
By Emily Huhn

Danielle Skelley got a flat tire traveling near Bedford, New Hampshire. Pregnant and alone on the trip, a flat was the last thing she wanted to deal with. But her misfortune led to an unexpected tip. It was the tow truck driver who mentioned a business in Salem, Massachusetts that offered three-dimensional images and videos of babies in the womb. He and his wife had seen their baby this way when she was pregnant. Intrigued, Danielle decided to make the trip from her home in Merrimack, New Hampshire to Sneak Peek Ultrasound to get a tape of their unborn son as a surprise holiday gift for her husband Chris. She played the video Christmas morning. “It was the best Christmas I’ve ever had,” Chris said. “It totally surprised me and it was just great to see my baby.”

Sneak Peek Ultrasound is just one of many businesses across the country opening to meet the demand for “fetal keepsake videos” from expectant couples. Typically, parents-to-be receive a flat, grainy black-and-white image of their growing baby from their doctor after a standard diagnostic ultrasound at 18 weeks. But parents are increasingly shelling out $100-$300 for live-3D images of their babies later in their pregnancies in order to obtain golden-hued videos and photographs that can capture a yawn or a smile and reveal distinctive features such as the baby’s eyes, nose, and chin.

“It is clear that women want this service, they want that connection,” said Kelli Twiss, who runs Sneak Peek’s Salem branch. Twiss, a mother of four, wished she had had the chance to bond more closely with her babies when she was pregnant. “For some people I don’t think the reality hits until they see a little baby’s face.” She and her husband Dan, a carpenter, decided to open their branch of Sneak Peek Ultrasound a year ago after buying a used General Electric ultrasound machine and hiring a certified ultrasound technician to run it.

“The more people that bond with the baby, the better that baby is going to be cared for, it’s that simple,” said Twiss, who is convinced this service isn’t just for moms, but for extended families as well. Prenatal sonograms are important because they let moms relax and enjoy what is on the screen, said Terri Truex, president of Sneak Peek and owner of the Nevada branch. “We’ve had such a positive response from doctors out here because it makes the moms feel better,” and...