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Parental Confidence Linked to Scan Narration
The researchers focused their analysis on 23 qualified articles found in journal databases upon searching for English-language studies describing or reporting measures of attachment after prenatal imaging in expectant parents.
Most studies, 17 of the 23, involved the experience of mothers only. Five involved both parents, and one looked solely at fathers.
Here are six key insights the project produced, as summarized in Sept. 1 coverage by the university’s news operation:
1. The scan experience begins before the scan appointment. The full experience includes parents looking forward to the scan while “feeling simultaneously apprehensive over the potential to receive unexpected news about their baby.”
2. The scan is a pregnancy ritual. Across the reviewed literature, parents regarded scans as an expected and wanted milestone event.
3. When parents feel actively involved in the scan, their overall perception of the procedure improves. Parents tend to feel the presence of fathers at scans is important not only for maternal support but also to “help attending fathers feel closer to their unborn baby” than fathers who miss the experience.
4. Parents’ priorities for knowledge and understanding of the scan change during pregnancy. At earlier stages of pregnancy, parents prioritize knowing their pregnancy is viable. At later stages it is important for parents to know about the presence of fetal anomalies.
5. Parents desire a sense of partnership with the ultrasound operator during the scan. In the literature, parents’ confidence in their sonographer was linked with narration of the scan. Further, limiting the use of medical terminology “humanized the fetus, implying to parents that the sonographer recognized their unborn baby as an individual rather than a medical entity.”
6. Scans help create a social identity for the unborn baby. Many parents centered their news about pregnancies around a scan, with some waiting until their first scan to tell friends and family about their pregnancies. Also common was the sharing of scan pictures or videos “so that their support circle had a sense of knowing the baby even before birth.”
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