Ultrasound as a technology of reassurance? How pregnant women and health care professionals articulate ultrasound reassurance and its limitations

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2249256
AutoresG M Thomas (0000-0003-4959-2337, School of Social Sciences Cardiff University Cardiff UK, autor de correspondencia), Julie Roberts (0000-0001-6099-9600, Division of Midwifery School of Health Sciences University of Nottingham Nottingham UK), Frances Griffiths (0000-0002-4173-1438, University of Warwick), Frances E Griffiths (Warwick Medical School University of Warwick Coventry UK)
Año2017
Volumen39
Número6
Páginas893-907
Fecha de publicación2017-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9566.12554
PMID28326555
OpenAlexW2563812384
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9
Referencias citadas41

The premise that ultrasound technologies provide reassurance for pregnant women is well-rehearsed. However, there has been little research about how this reassurance is articulated and understood by both expectant mothers and health care professionals. In this article, we draw on two qualitative UK studies to explore the salience of ultrasound reassurance to women's pregnancy experiences whilst highlighting issues around articulation and silence. Specifically, we capture how expectant parents express a general need for reassurance and how visualisation and the conduct of professionals have a crucial role to play in accomplishing a sense of reassurance. We also explore how professionals have ambiguities about the relationship between ultrasound and reassurance, and how they subsequently articulate reassurance to expectant mothers. By bringing two studies together, we take a broad perspectival view of how gaps and silences within the discourse of ultrasound reassurance leave the claims made for ultrasound as a technology of reassurance unchallenged. Finally, we explore the implications this can have for women's experiences of pregnancy and health care professionals' practices

Acoustics · Articulation (sociology · Epistemology · Health care · Health professionals · Obstetrics · Pregnancy · Premise · Qualitative research · Salience (neuroscience · Silence · Sociology · Maternal and Perinatal Health Interventions · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology