Ultrasound as a technology of reassurance?: how pregnant women and health care professionals articulate ultrasound reassurance and its limitations
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...
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| Format: | Article |
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Blackwell Publishing
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41616/ |
| _version_ | 1848796316344254464 |
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| author | Thomas, Gareth M. Roberts, Julie Griffiths, Frances E. |
| author_facet | Thomas, Gareth M. Roberts, Julie Griffiths, Frances E. |
| author_sort | Thomas, Gareth M. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:46:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-41616 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:46:03Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Blackwell Publishing |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-416162020-05-04T18:38:50Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41616/ Ultrasound as a technology of reassurance?: how pregnant women and health care professionals articulate ultrasound reassurance and its limitations Thomas, Gareth M. Roberts, Julie Griffiths, Frances E. 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. Blackwell Publishing 2017-03-22 Article PeerReviewed Thomas, Gareth M., Roberts, Julie and Griffiths, Frances E. (2017) Ultrasound as a technology of reassurance?: how pregnant women and health care professionals articulate ultrasound reassurance and its limitations. Sociology of Health and Illness . ISSN 1467-9566 Patient-professional interaction; Pregnancy; Prenatal care; Reassurance; Risk; Ultrasound http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9566.12554/full doi:10.1111/1467-9566.12554 doi:10.1111/1467-9566.12554 |
| spellingShingle | Patient-professional interaction; Pregnancy; Prenatal care; Reassurance; Risk; Ultrasound Thomas, Gareth M. Roberts, Julie Griffiths, Frances E. Ultrasound as a technology of reassurance?: how pregnant women and health care professionals articulate ultrasound reassurance and its limitations |
| title | Ultrasound as a technology of reassurance?: how pregnant women and health care professionals articulate ultrasound reassurance and its limitations |
| title_full | Ultrasound as a technology of reassurance?: how pregnant women and health care professionals articulate ultrasound reassurance and its limitations |
| title_fullStr | Ultrasound as a technology of reassurance?: how pregnant women and health care professionals articulate ultrasound reassurance and its limitations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ultrasound as a technology of reassurance?: how pregnant women and health care professionals articulate ultrasound reassurance and its limitations |
| title_short | Ultrasound as a technology of reassurance?: how pregnant women and health care professionals articulate ultrasound reassurance and its limitations |
| title_sort | ultrasound as a technology of reassurance?: how pregnant women and health care professionals articulate ultrasound reassurance and its limitations |
| topic | Patient-professional interaction; Pregnancy; Prenatal care; Reassurance; Risk; Ultrasound |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41616/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41616/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41616/ |