Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
5
The normal baby-to-be
Lay and professional negotiations
of the ultrasound image
Ann-Cristine Jonsson
Introduction
The image of the body is constantly shaped and re-shaped by the
development of medical technology in late-modern society. Social scientists
have increasingly paid attention to these changes in the image of the body,
and have also argued that this leads to an uncertainty about what the body
is (Shilling 1993; Williams 1997). Development within reproductive health,
as well as within genetics, transplantation and plastic surgery, has created
new possibilities for controlling the body, as well as to have it controlled
by others. At the same time, this has encouraged an increased refl exivity
about the body, and about how it can, or should, be reconstructed and
controlled (Shilling 1993; Turner 1992). Ultrasound technology, as it is used
within maternity health care, is one example of these new technologies, a
technology that creates representations of the inner body and visualizes the
expected baby.
1
During the routine ultrasound scan, parts of the pregnant woman's body,
and the expected baby, are visualized on a screen. This means that in the
clinical situation, the health professionals as well as the parents-to-be
2
will
encounter representations of the inner body and the expected baby. These
representations do not speak for themselves, but have to be interpreted,
explained and communicated in the clinical situation. The ultrasound
technology thus confronts both parties with new problems related to the
understanding of the body. Researchers have argued that the use of the routine
ultrasound scan has introduced new conditions for how the individual can
perceive the 'borders' of the body, and disrupted the traditional conception
of inside and outside of the woman's body and of the pregnancy as 'an
interior' experience (Petchesky 1987; Duden 1993). The visualization has
resulted in a representation and a conception of the baby-to-be as separate
and autonomous in relation to the woman, and the possibility to 'treat it
as a patient already' (Petchesky 1987). Also, the medical assessment of the
expected baby's health during pregnancy is no longer based primarily on the
woman's experiences, but on the ultrasound technology (Georges 1996).
The ultrasound technology has thus increased the possibility to control and
