Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Example 10
MIDWIFE:
A foot, can you see the whole foot sole here, and then this is the
heel and then the toes are here (L
ENA
: yeah)
LENA:
It's got fi ve toes? [laughter]
MIDWIFE:
Yes we shall see they are rather small so that, smaller than three
millimetres almost (L
ENA
: yes)
MIDWIFE:
[inaudible]
[the midwife scans for ten seconds]
LENA:
I don't know if I'm making this up but I think I can feel it
MIDWIFE:
I'm sure you do, I'm sure you could have felt, but you never know
what it is for sure (L
ENA
: no) later on you will understand, but the fi rst
time it could be a bubbly tummy or anything, I'm sure you have felt it
that's what I think (…) it's not very far away to you (…) you don't have
very much in between
[the midwife shows the distance between the baby's feet and the inner
surface of the womb].
In this example, we also see that the interpretations of the image alert
the parents to questions concerning the baby's health and normality. Lena's
statement might be understood as a question about the number of toes and
thus as a worry. She does not ask straightforwardly if the foot looks normal
and if all the fi ngers are there, but chooses a weaker form, which is typical of
how parents phrase their concerns. The midwife always assures the parents
that all the body parts are there, and explains that they also will be able to
see these body parts. In most cases she uses the zoom-function to try to fi nd
an image that will make all the toes or fi ngers visible. In this way the midwife
tries to help the parents to 'see' the image on the screen. She is also showing
that the expected baby is 'complete' and normal, and she makes a special
point of showing that every body part is there. In Example 10, when the
expected baby's feet are shown, the midwife makes an effort to bring her
own professional perspective on the image of the expected baby in line with
the woman's everyday understanding and questions about the baby. She does
this for example by carefully and with precision helping the woman to 'see'
the baby's toes.
The midwife also explains how the inner organs might be recognized on
the screen. In the next example, she speaks about 'black spots', and then tells
the parents what organ or body part can be identifi ed on the screen, in this
case the stomach.
Example 11
MIDWIFE:
Then it is the head that we have got it is this [inaudible] that was
what we saw then and the heart, quite right too that you saw the chest
in here in (…) (L
ENA
: uhum) there, those black spots under there, is the
