{"id":865121,"date":"2026-08-20T15:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T15:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/865121\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T15:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T15:26:15","slug":"expectant-ontario-moms-are-travelling-hours-for-routine-ultrasounds-amid-sonographer-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/865121\/","title":{"rendered":"Expectant Ontario moms are travelling hours for routine ultrasounds amid sonographer shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sylvia Lopez is 20-weeks pregnant, and estimates she\u2019s spent more than 12 hours on the road travelling to and from ultrasound appointments so far.<\/p>\n

The London, Ont., woman spent weeks calling imaging centres in her city and the surrounding area, but was told that there were no appointments available. Eventually she got a booking in a clinic an hour and a half away in Milton, Ont.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been to Milton multiple times and it\u2019s hard. It’s transportation, it\u2019s logistics, it\u2019s gas money, it\u2019s everything,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lopez is among many women in Ontario who are struggling to schedule routine ultrasound appointments due to growing waitlists and a shortage of sonographers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AExpecting mother Sylvia Lopez is driving from London, Ont., to Milton, Ont., for ultrasound appointments after being told that local sonographers are booked full. (Submitted by Sylvia Lopez)<\/p>\n

More than 10 million ultrasounds happen across the country annually, according to Sonography Canada director of professional affairs Tara Chegwin.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though the capacity within the system to provide more ultrasounds has grown, the demand has also grown,\u201d she said. \u201cThis has been a longstanding challenge within the healthcare system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultrasound wait times are approximately four weeks on average in Ontario, according to a recent report<\/a> from the Fraser Institute.<\/p>\n

Contributing to that wait time is the provincial vacancy rate for sonographers, which was 20 per cent in 2024 Chegwin said, though expecting parents are often prioritized within the appointment system.<\/p>\n

\"AnRebecca Kennedy Briand drove from London, Ont., to Woodstock, Ont., to receive a this ultrasound image of her now-born son, Casey. (Submitted by Rebecca Kennedy Briand)<\/p>\n

\u201cFor obstetric ultrasound, they have to occur at a specific time frame within the pregnancy, so those scans aren\u2019t typically delayed like another type of ultrasound may be,\u201d Chegwin said, adding that people getting abdominal, pelvic or thyroid ultrasounds may experience even longer waits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the sites are trying to get those scans done in the optimal window depending on the requisition and what the doctor requested, so everyone has their best interest in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Onus on parents<\/p>\n

Parents say there is a lot of pressure that comes with trying to book an ultrasound, especially because each must be timed with specific milestones in the pregnancy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so stressful. You already have so many things going on in your mind about planning and worries if the baby is OK,\u201d said London mom Rebecca Kennedy Briand. \u201cIt\u2019s scary thinking that maybe I can\u2019t get the care that I need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ARebecca Kennedy Briand says it was stressful travelling from London to Woodstock for frequent ultrasounds throughout her pregnancy. She gave birth to her first son in April. (Kendra Seguin\/CBC News)<\/p>\n

Both she and Lopez said that after they confirmed their pregnancy and received an ultrasound referral from a practitioner, the onus was on them to find a sonographer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very time-consuming on my lunch hour at work,\u201d Kennedy Briand said. \u201cSometimes you\u2019re put on hold, sometimes you can\u2019t speak to a person, sometimes you\u2019re waiting in the queue for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy Briand, who had her baby in April, travelled 30 minutes to Woodstock, Ont., for ultrasounds throughout her pregnancy. She considers herself among the luckier parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a number of platforms like Facebook and Instagram where people have discussed this and I would say I see at least one post daily of a mom saying, \u2018I\u2019ve been calling around and I can\u2019t get an ultrasound. Where are you going?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve definitely seen moms post that they\u2019re driving as far as Mississauga.”<\/p>\n

\"ALondon, Ont., resident Sylvia Lopez is 20-weeks pregnant with her third child. She has been travelling more than an hour and a half each way to Milton, Ont., for ultrasounds. (Submitted by Sylvia Lopez)<\/p>\n

That stress continues during ongoing travel to appointments, Lopez said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEmotionally, it\u2019s been draining. The last one I went to had a heavy thunderstorm, the traffic on the 401, sometimes there\u2019s accidents on the way that are not in your control. You\u2019re a little bit anxious,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Push for more sonographers<\/p>\n

Chegwin said there have been efforts to fill sonographer vacancies in the province.<\/p>\n

\u201cInternational recruitment of sonographers is one of the factors. There\u2019s also a high number of new educational programs in the province to produce more graduates annually,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Until then, Kennedy Briand has advice for expecting parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe prepared. Be ready to drive \u2026 and know about [the challenges] in advance, so maybe you\u2019re less stressed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Lopez is reminding parents that they should not be hard on themselves during the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there are any moms out there experiencing the same story as I am, I\u2019d let them know they\u2019re not alone and they\u2019re not the only ones with bad luck. It\u2019s just part of the system right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In a written statement provided to CBC News, a Ministry of Health spokesperson pointed to the province’s recent efforts to add new health care professionals across the province as one of several ways officials are working to lower wait times.<\/p>\n

It also pointed to provincial rules in place to make it easier for those professionals to move to Ontario.<\/p>\n

“Ontario is the first in Canada to establish As of Right rules for health care professionals, including medical sonographers, which allows professionals registered in other Canadian jurisdictions to begin to practice in Ontario immediately,” the statement reads.<\/p>\n

“In May 2026, our government directed several regulatory health colleges to develop frameworks enabling allied health professionals to order or perform diagnostic ultrasounds. This change aims to speed up patient care and reduce wait times by letting practitioners use their full training.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sylvia Lopez is 20-weeks pregnant, and estimates she\u2019s spent more than 12 hours on the road travelling to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-865121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}