Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
MIDWIFE:
Two [quietly] then I have to check the checklist, because I didn't
get the measurement quite right [clears her throat]
[the midwife turns around and picks up the checklist and looks at it]
MIDWIFE:
Now let's see
[the midwife then gets up from her chair and walks towards a bench
next to her and opens a folder].
In contrast to the other cases, where the midwife typically performs the
measurement and talks about what she checks without any further comments
on the measurements, the midwife here tells the parents that she has to check
this measurement again, because it does not correspond to the expected
outcome. 'I didn't get the measurement quite right', she says. Similar to
what happens in the other examinations the midwife does not talk about
what she is doing in any detail. In this sense she downplays the information
she gives to the parents.
Example 16
RIKARD:
What did you say, did you get one?
MIDWIFE:
See twenty-nine twenty-three
[browses through a folder with measurements standing next to the bench
where the researcher sits]
MIDWIFE:
Twenty-three sixteen, thanks
[the researcher takes the folder as the midwife tries to put it back on the
bench]
RIKARD:
Twenty-three what's that?
MIDWIFE:
Well that is the head measurement
RIKARD:
What did you say? [inaudible]
MIDWIFE:
Yes just wait two seconds [laughter]
RIKARD:
Yes of course
MIDWIFE:
Fourteen plus three yes I understand that you are eager, I will just
check, I got a measurement that I'm not satisfi ed with so I have to go to
the hand-top
[sits with the hand-top in the hand]
MIDWIFE:
Plus three [quietly] and then we say the twenty-third of September
and yes then it differs two days there you had got the twenty-fi fth there
so it corresponds very well then
RIKARD:
It does, does it?
MIDWIFE:
Perfect to the time of pregnancy
yes yes (…) it does
so.
Rikard immediately asks what the midwife said and obviously wants to
know more: 'what did you say, did you get one?' The midwife then starts
to calculate, aided by her checklist, and in this way avoids answering his
questions. Rikard repeats one of the last fi gures that the midwife has spelled
