Parents-to-be consider prenatal ultrasound imaging a ceremonial custom they don’t want to miss out on.
And the sonography experience begins before scan day arrives, with many if not most parents approaching the date with conflicted feelings: They’re excited about the positive possibilities yet anxious over the potential for adverse findings.
These are among six psychological insights to emerge from a systematic review of the relevant literature conducted at City University of London in the U.K. and published this summer in the Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology [1].
An overarching theme connecting the six observations is the commonality of increased parental attachment to developing offspring following high-satisfaction patient experiences in initial imaging sessions.
Maternal-fetal imaging “can enhance prenatal attachment,” doctoral fellow Emily Skelton, senior author Susan Ayers, PhD, and colleagues write, adding that ultrasound operators can unobtrusively encourage this attachment by delivering “parent-centered care tailored to parents’ emotional and knowledge needs.”
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.”
‘Sonographers Can Help Facilitate the Attachment Process’
The authors conclude that the imaging produced during the maternal-fetal ultrasound experience can help parents engage with their developing offspring in real time.
They state this succession of events often has the effect of transforming parents’ perceptions of the nature of their budding progeny from an impersonal fetus to an individual person.
More:
The success of this transformation is dependent on sonographers interpreting images in a way that becomes accessible to parents. Sonographers can help facilitate the attachment process by providing an interactive, parent-centered scan experience that is tailored to parents’ individual emotional needs and requests of information and knowledge for the gestation of pregnancy.”
The study was published online in June and is available in full for free.
City University of London’s Sept. 1 news coverage is here.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.