This reflective essay discusses the importance of medical visualisation in clinical settings, specifically ultrasound imaging during pregnancy. Written from my viewpoint as a Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist, it explores the psychodynamic significance of repeated scans and the anxieties linked to pregnancy uncertainty, predominantly through the lens of my clinical expertise on mental health issues in the perinatal period. Given the topic’s broad and intricate nature, I will draw on themes from medical humanities and reproductive ethics to provide a more thorough analysis. Additionally, I share my own duality, writing as a mother who experienced two medicalised pregnancies and caesarean births, under the care of National Health Service (NHS) maternity services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ultrasound technology and its role in patient care are relatively recent innovations. The first portable ultrasonoscope, an important breakthrough in electrical engineering and medicine, was developed in 1951. It used a condom rubber membrane and an iso-electric quartz…