This paper introduces a novel pipeline designed to bring ultrasound (US) plane pose estimation closer to clinical use for more effective navigation to the standard planes (SPs) in the fetal brain. We propose a semi-supervised segmentation model utilizing both labeled SPs and unlabeled 3D US volume slices. Our model enables reliable segmentation across a diverse set of fetal brain images. Furthermore, the model incorporates a classification mechanism to identify the fetal brain precisely. Our model not only filters out frames lacking the brain but also generates masks for those containing it, enhancing the relevance of plane pose regression in clinical settings. We focus on fetal brain navigation from two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound (US) video analysis and combine this model with a US plane pose regression network to provide sensorless proximity detection to SPs and non-SPs planes; we emphasize the importance of proximity detection to SPs for guiding sonographers, offering a substantial advantage over traditional methods by allowing earlier and more precise adjustments during scanning. We demonstrate the practical applicability of our approach through validation on real fetal scan videos obtained from sonographers of varying expertise levels. Our findings demonstrate the potential of our approach to complement existing fetal US technologies and advance prenatal diagnostic practices.

"The first time I saw an obstetrics ultrasound exam, I thought it was a little bit like magic," said Dr. Susanne Johnson, Associate Specialist in Gynecology at Princess Anne Hospital in the United Kingdom. "I thought to myself, 'now that's something I want to do.'" Now as a gynecologist who specializes in helping diagnose some of the most difficult gynecological diseases and teaching others her skills, Dr. Johnson is using advanced ultrasound technology that has a new bit of'magic' built-in: automated tools and artificial intelligence. "Every patient I have is a bit of a puzzle and my job is to try and develop a hypothesis of what's the problem. Then, I can use ultrasound to try and prove it and point the patient in the right direction to get the care they need," said Dr. Johnson.