Reading Response: Reproductive Technology

Birth marks the start of the life cycle. It is a seemingly natural and inevitable part of life, yet the process and meaning behind it manifests itself differently in various cultures and have also changed with the recent development of biomedical technologies, including the ultrasound. This life event is thus co-constructed by biomedicine but also by the different beliefs and values that each society holds in that particular time in history.

Since the development of ultrasounds, prenatal scans have become a routine part of most pregnancies around the world. The use of ultrasounds have become so natural that it is almost unheard of to not use an ultrasound during a pregnancy (within countries that have access to these scientific advances). However, even the seemingly simple ultrasound scans hold different significance for different groups of people. The articles for this week focused on the ultrasound technology—its normalization and proliferation, uses for pregnancies and fetal screenings, and differing views on the ultrasound in several cultures. I personally found Tine Gammeltoft’s “Sonography and Sociality” incredibly interesting so I will focus on that in this reading response.

Whereas in the West parents-to-be have considerable faith in medical technology and view ultrasounds as an early way to meet their future baby, Vietnamese women have a very paradoxical relationship. In her article, Gammeltoft explores the general distrust harbored by Vietnamese women for this Western technology in fear that the scans may hurt the fetus yet their incredibly high consumption rate of these same scans. Despite their hesitations about the safety of ultrasounds, urban Vietnamese women pay to have numerous ultrasound scans to see if the fetus is developing normally without any fetal abnormalities—a real anxiety for pregnant women in a country where “quality” children are idealized. Even when the scans come back normal, the women get restless, fearing that although their baby was normal at the moment of the scan, there is no guarantee of its normality now. This aligns well with the traditional medicine view that the body is not materially stable; it is susceptible to change from the slightest of forces. Also, it is a common perception among Asian countries that the fetus is an ambiguous being that is neither inanimate nor human and is always changing. Therefore, the scans provide only momentary reassurance, fueling the need for even more ultrasound scans. Thus, the underlying cultural conceptions about the body and the fetus and societal pressures to have a normal, quality baby bring the Vietnamese women to incessantly subject themselves to ultrasound scans.

Birth not only represents a biological reproduction but also a reproduction of the continuity of social values, culture, and beliefs. It is no surprise then that this biological yet culturally significant event cannot be analyzed without the context of culture. By analyzing how this life event is carried out in each society throughout history, we come to an understanding that birth is not a universal concept and must be evaluated in the context of both technology and culture.