Fetal views: histories and habits of looking at the fetus in Germany.
This article examines historical and ideological trajectories that have made looking at the fetus via ultrasound a normal part of being pregnant for many women around the world. How did looking into so unlit a bodily space as the uterus become so natural? So everyday? So habit-forming? The answers lie in the convergence over time of technological hardware with knowledge practices that moved from medical to public domains. Germany serves as a site for an interrogation of how learned ways of thinking about anatomy, the development of technologies that "look," a privileging of the visual in medical domains, and seeing as metaphor for truth about health reinforced and normalized prenatal ultrasound use.
Erikson
Susan L
SL
Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. slerikson@sfu.ca
D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus; D005858:Germany; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D016216:Ultrasonography, Prenatal / Q000266:history*