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Seeing the baby, doing family : commercial ultrasound as family practice?
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Roberts, Julie, Griffiths, Frances and Verran, Alice (2017) Seeing the baby, doing family : commercial ultrasound as family practice? Sociology, 51 (3). pp. 527-542. doi:10.1177/0038038515591945 ISSN 0038-0385.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038515591945
Abstract
Medical sociologists and anthropologists have studied the social significance of obstetric ultrasound for families but little is known about how women and families make use of commercially available ultrasound scans. This article draws on interviews with women who booked a scan with a commercial company in the UK. For some women, commercial ultrasound can be understood as a family practice. We investigate this theme by examining who accompanies women to commercial scan appointments, how scan images are shared and how sonograms are used as prompts to resemblance talk. We argue that commercial scans are more than an additional opportunity to acquire ‘baby’s first picture’ and offer a flexible resource to do family, creating and affirming family relationships and rehearsing roles as parents, siblings and grandparents. Our findings confirm the importance of imagination in doing family and raise questions about the role of technology and commercial interests in shaping family practices.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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| Subjects: | G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman R Medicine > RC Internal medicine R Medicine > RG Gynecology and obstetrics |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences > Social Science & Systems in Health (SSSH) Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School |
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| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Families , Pregnancy , Diagnostic ultrasonic imaging, Fetus--Ultrasonic imaging--Social aspects | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Sociology | ||||||
| Publisher: | Sage Publications Ltd. | ||||||
| ISSN: | 0038-0385 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 1 June 2017 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 51 | ||||||
| Number: | 3 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 527-542 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1177/0038038515591945 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 26 April 2016 | ||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 4 May 2016 | ||||||
| Related URLs: |
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