Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
seen earlier, Jenny argues that she wants to 'think positively' by thinking that
she is
not
'the one', but one of the 249 that are fi ne.
JENNY:
(32, risk score 1:250) I try to think about that 249 will be fi ne, and
that I will be one of them. And she said that 1 per cent of all pregnancies
will anyway not go well, because I asked about the risk related to the
invasive test, which is 1 to 100, so in fact that chance of something going
wrong is bigger. So that is how I will think, then it will be a bit more
positive. But things go up and down, very much so. You should try not
to think so much, but that is very diffi cult.
Jenny says that when she waited for the results from the invasive test,
every second day she thought that something was wrong, 'but somehow I
have to think positively, or I will drive myself crazy'. She also tries to think
about the fact that there is anyway always a risk that something will go
wrong. The chance of something going wrong with the invasive test, for
instance, is 1:100. 'I just have to think like that, I can't think just negatively'.
But there are diffi culties in doing this. She puts it down to herself: 'then I
think it is me, I just have to think like that'. In the end, Jenny says, she tries
not
to think.
Seeing oneself as belonging to, or being placed in, a risk group is thus a
way to understand the high risk information. Another illustrative example
is Jenny, who comments on her own risk score of 1:250, on the border of
having a high risk outcome, as being 'the last, I just slipped in'. Ending up in
a risk group means that something is demanded from you, you have to take
certain decisions. This notion of a risk group seems to be supported by the
ways the women try to understand the risk information by making it more
concrete or visual, frequently referring to the midwife's efforts to explain
the high risk information.
Trying to visualize the risk
The women thus talk about the midwife and how she tries to help them to
understand the risk score. One way is to
make the risk score more visual
.
Again, the risk score is diffi cult to understand, as Beatrice argues, particularly
when you have to 'take a decision based on something you don't understand'.
She describes how she tries to understand better by visualizing her risk of
1:219, to create an image of the risk. She refers to what the midwife told her
about how she could make the risk score more concrete:
BEATRICE:
(32, risk score 1:219) Imagine that you give birth to 219 babies,
if you would have 219 babies, one of them would have this deviance.
The risk is that you think about 219 mothers with babies in the street,
so one of these babies would be, but that is not the case, you must not
think like that, because that is wrong, it's supposed to be that if every
