I recently had the experience of sitting in on a 19 week pregnancy scan. For my wife and I it was the first chance to see our new child and as such, we were both looking forward to it.
For many couples, the first pregnancy ultrasound is the first bonding experience they have with their new child. Before the days of ultrasound, a mother’s first bonding to the new baby was started when she first felt the baby moving, but increasingly, the ultrasound is the first experience that mothers and fathers have with their new child. This is recognised by medical researchers. It’s also probably been a factor in society’s increasing recognition of the humanity of the pre born child.
Forming this relationship between parents and the child is important. The strength of the bond will affect many outcomes for the child, particularly for the child’s education.
I have personally found a great deal of difference between sonographers. I’ve had the privilege of seeing Shari Richard at work, and seen her infectious enthusiasm for the unborn child, and the positive effect it has on the child’s parents. Few sonographers can match her enthusiasm. I’ve seen other sonographers at work, including one working on me, although she wasn’t going to find a baby and wasn’t looking for one! They differ greatly in the way they interact with parents about their new baby. The most recent sonographer we had always referred to our child as ‘baby’, e.g. “This is babies head” etc.
But this isn’t always the case. We had a scan in a previous pregnancy when the sonographer became very quiet. Later we found out the reason – she had found a medical problem with our child. Although it was potentially very serious, a couple of surgeries fixed the problem before it could do any serious damage, and our child now enjoys excellent health.
But why the difference in the response of the sonographer? Our baby didn’t stop being our baby because he had a medical problem. We certainly didn’t love him any less.
But sonographers and other medical professional are influenced by abortion. Abortion is considered a solution to many birth defects, so it’s natural for sonographers to moderate their enthusiasm for the baby during scans.
But this could affect the start of the formation of the bond between baby and parents. Crisis Pregnancy Centres have known for a long time the benefit of an expectant mother seeing her baby by ultrasound. It encourages the bond to form between mother and child. But ultrasound can be used in a way that doesn’t encourage this bonding. Clinic profit motives and abortion quotas can affect the way ultrasound results are presented and interpreted. A recent study of 15 500 women attending Planned Parenthood abortion clinics showed that viewing ultrasound images had very little effect on the mothers decision to abort her child. It’s hard to imagine the ultrasound technicians in these abortion clinics wanted to present the humanity of the pre-born child and facilitate bonding between mother and child.
Similarly, using ultrasound as a search and destroy mission to eliminate less than perfect is not a good way to encourage bonding. It’s important for the sonographer to show the beauty and humanity of the pre-born child. This is the start of a relationship that will last a lifetime. It’s the most important relationship, and it deserves a good start. Children do better when there is good bonding with their parents. It’s here that the sensitivity to the minority that have abortions, affects the rest of us – and our children.
It is one of the ways that abortion affects us all.