SEPARATE, BUT LESS UNEQUAL - FETAL ULTRASONOGRAPHY AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF EXPECTANT MOTHER FATHERHOOD

Fetal ultrasonography has made women's and men's relationship to the f etus more equal. Drawing on information obtained from multiple conjoin t interviews with 62 childbearing couples, I suggest that although wom en and men are both advantaged by fetal ultrasonography, expectant fat hers' experience of the fetus is always enhanced, whereas pregnant wom en's experience may also be attenuated For men, fetal ultrasonography is like a prosthetic device: an enabling mechanism that permits them a ccess to a female world from which they have been excluded because of their limited biological role in reproduction. For women, fetal ultras onography is enabling, but it may also be a disabling mechanism that d isrupts their privileged access to the fetus.