Massey Documents by Type

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294

Browse

Filters

1999 - 199912000 - 20071

Settings

Subject: search.filters.subject.Fetus

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    How are babies made? : discourses of foetal "persons" and pregnant "mothers" in news media and health education texts : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Women's Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2007) Parker, Christy Susan
    Adopting a social constructionist perspective this research asks how are babies made? This question destabilises the local reproductive context asking how foetuses and their mothers have come to matter. I have analysed "everyday" texts broadly circulated in this context addressing matters related to pregnancy. These include health education posters intended to communicate health information to pregnant women, and news media articles from daily newspapers throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Using a discourse analytic method, I have identified a strong discursive practice of subjectifying foetuses as entities separate from pregnant women with distinct identities: foetal persons. While foetal subjects take various forms, the dominant construction is the "unborn baby," a vulnerable infant who must be protected from harm and emerges as the central subject of pregnancy. The construction of pregnant subjects in these texts relates to the construction of foetal subjects. Pregnant women (and potentially pregnant women) arc reduced to their bodies' reproductive role as "maternal environments," ones which pose risks to the foetus. However, they are also constructed as maternal subjects. As "mothers," pregnant women are individually responsible for ensuring the health and wellbeing of foetuses. The "good mother" will of course do anything she can for her "child" by self-regulating her potentially harmful behaviour. The "acquiescent mother" acquiesces to biomedical interventions on behalf of the foetus. Pregnant subjects who do not self-regulate their behaviour and acquiesce to biomedical interventions are "bad" maternal subjects who harm their "children." The discourses of biomedicine (and biomedical sciences) and public health, particularly those of risk, emerge as dominant in constructing and naturalising of these reproductive subjects. I consider the implications of these subjects for social practices around reproduction, and for midwifery practice.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Morphological effects of pulsed Doppler diagnostic ultrasound on rat adult lung and fetal tissues : a thesis presented in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Physiology and Anatomy at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1999) Dulović, Stanica Milan
    This study investigated morphological effects of diagnostic pulsed Doppler ultrasound on adult and fetal rat lungs from 16 to 22 days gestation. A clinical ultrasound machine with two types of focused transducers (3.5 MHz, 5MHz) was used with an adjustment for an experimental animal as small as a rat. Three levels of exposure were represented by a mechanical index (Ml) of 0.5, 0.6 and 1.0. Subpleural multifocal intra-alveolar haemorrhage was found to a significant degree in exposed adult rat lung and less significantly in fetal lung. The threshold for adult lung haemorrhage was considered to be between Ml 0.5 and 0.6. Fetal lungs were microscopically investigated by sectioning through the whole fetal body, which facilitated the discovery of haemorrhage at other sites. The percentage of exposed fetuses with haemorrhage is significant. A threshold for fetal haemorrhage could not be determined because a significant variation due to age within each exposure group affected the results. The oldest 21 and 22 day old fetuses had no lung haemorrhage or significant non-lung haemorrhage. The risk for haemorrhage at all three exposure levels is more than double that of non exposed fetuses. Fetuses with lung in the canalicular stage of development (18-19 day) showed the greatest degree of lung haemorrhage. Following laparotomy of the dam to achieve a precise and uniform exposure, a small number of fetuses within each exposure group was exposed directly. There was no higher degree of haemorrhage in these fetuses than in others indirectly exposed through the dam's abdominal wall. The fetal age dependency of fetal lung haemorrhage found in this study adds complexity to the issue of adult and fetal lung sensitivity to ultrasound and to the question of the pathophysiological role of cavitation in the presence of air. In addition, our result in 21-22day fetuses does not support the hypothesis that fetal haemorrhage is associated with developing bone. The results in this study were achieved using conditions commonly used in echocardiography and obstetrical ultrasound examinations. Therefore, caution is suggested in the medical use of ultrasound.