Elizabeth Yale, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Iowa, wrote an essay exploring prenatal imaging practices before ultrasound that focuses on two centuries old practices that show how much different things were in the past.
“In our own day, images of pregnancy proliferate,” she writes. “Limbs emerge out of the floating darkness as an ultrasound technician traces a wand across a woman’s jelly-smeared belly. A heart thrums, and a parent can see it on the screen at six weeks, whereas a woman in the eighteenth century would not generally have confirmed her pregnancy until “quickening,” the moment at about twenty weeks when she feels the baby move for the first time.”
Click the link below to read the full essay:
Nicholas joined TriMed in 2016 as the managing editor of the Chicago office. After receiving his master’s from Roosevelt University, he worked in various writing/editing roles for magazines ranging in topic from billiards to metallurgy. Currently on Chicago’s north side, Nicholas keeps busy by running, reading and talking to his two cats.