Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
She goes on to refl ect that the baby may not even be alive in a couple of
months. The 'strange feeling' can of course be understood as an expression
of uncertainty if the face of these possibilities, or not wanting to become
emotionally 'involved' with a baby that is maybe not going to be born.
After the results from the invasive test, Ann speaks more explicitly about
normality:
ANN:
It was a very nice letter from the clinic, from that doctor, I don't
remember his name, but the nice thing was that it said normal several
times in bold letters, that it was a normal result and that it is completely
normal. That was very considerate, I think. I gather it is a word that all
parents want to hear all the time, that it is normal
INTERVIEWER:
So that was what the test showed?
ANN:
Yes, it was, one could see immediately that it was normal (Interview 2).
After the high risk information, the baby's normality is thus largely
questioned by the women. Even those who try to think about the baby as
healthy would typically oscillate between seeing the baby as healthy and ill
or disabled. Furthermore, these refl ections are extended into the baby as
not being alive or into thinking about their baby as a Down syndrome child
and what this would mean for the child, themselves as parents and for their
whole family. The possibility that the baby, who is still in the womb, is not
going to 'be there' in the near future is a line of thought that surfaces in
various ways in many interviews, as we have already seen. This possibility is
explicitly or implicitly related to a decision about an abortion, which might
follow a Down syndrome diagnosis, or a miscarriage due to the invasive test
or just something that could happen anyway. The women quite explicitly
account for their images and fantasies of a baby with an abnormality. They
think about the future, which might possibly be a life with a child that has
Down syndrome, and what it could be like to parent such a child. They also
go on to refl ect on what life would be like, and the diffi culties created by the
mismatch between the needs of a family with a Down syndrome child and
the attitudes and conditions in society at large.
Re-evaluations of the risk assessment after the birth
In the third and last interview, two months after the birth of a healthy
baby, the women present a range of arguments why the risk assessment was
something good or bad to have participated in. The good things were that if
there is an abnormality, it is better to fi nd out at an early stage, and also that
going through this diffi cult process of risk assessment will make you even
more happy if your baby turns out to be healthy and make you feel more
'humble' and grateful in the face of what life can bring. The negative things
have to do with the fact that they had to go through a very diffi cult period
while pregnant, that this in effect ruined that period and prevented them
