Lori Borgman
Picture this! Human 'beans'
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | I was looking through the kids' baby books for immunization records when a sheet of photographic paper fell to the floor.
"What's that?" the youngest asked.
"Those are the first pictures ever made of your brother," I said.
"He must have been pretty ugly because he looks more like a kidney bean than a baby."
"Watch it," I said. "Every mother thinks her baby is gorgeous.
Didn't we tell people you were beautiful? You had a head like cue-ball and constantly sucked your two middle fingers."
"Why do these pictures look so fuzzy?" she asked.
"Because they're ultrasounds."
I pointed out the differences between the grainy black and white frames. "This frame that looks like a lima bean is an overall shot of him. This pinto bean is his head, this small black bean is his leg and this spoonful of refried beans is his torso."
For all the biology, chemistry and physiology classes kids today take, they spend very little time studying fetal development. Pity. It's fascinating. Like most older kids, ours can tell you how the egg is fertilized and how the baby exits the womb, but they don't know a lot about what happens between those two pivotal events.
In public schools, kids will get Planned Parenthood, AIDS awareness, and if it's a very progressive school, maybe even free condoms on Valentine's Day, but fetal development? Probably not. Why would they? I never learned about fetal development in school either.
All I needed to know I learned in LIFE magazine. Lennart Nilsson, the Swedish photographer who pioneered the use of endoscopes to document life in the womb was featured in LIFE during the '60s and '70s. His most memorable picture was of an infant the size of a kitten curled tightly in its mother's womb, sucking its thumb. Nilsson followed the entire bean from start to finish. He made fascinating images that showed the beginning of the brain, the spinal column, the tiny buds for arms and legs and the itty bitty eye sockets.
My daughter, still looking at the grainy black and white images, said, "Why don't you have ultrasounds of me?"
"Because he was our favorite bean," I said. She rolled her eyes.
"OK, the only reason we have ultrasounds of him is because he was making noises like he was going to exit early. The doctor ordered ultrasounds to see how he was developing and if he was viable. Those ultrasounds are antiques by today's standards."
Today's ultrasounds are in color and have incredible clarity. As a matter of fact, some ultrasounds have moved beyond the hospitals and are invading the malls. Coupling expectant parents' eagerness for a first look at their babies with new 3-D and 4-D ultrasound machines, companies such as Fetal Fotos have been springing up around the country. The $120 special includes two ultra-sound sessions, a portrait of the baby's face and a video of the baby moving, set to a lullaby.
Some women say it's the ultimate gift at baby showers. Personally, I'd rather have a box of disposal diapers. Ultrasounds are wonderful, but I would never have one just for grins.
I took one of Nilsson's books from our shelves and began paging through it with my daughter. It wasn't her baby book, but in a sense it was every baby's book.
"There are only two things every baby needs from here on out" I said, pointing at a image made just days after conception. "Do you know what they are?"
"Headphones and a good CD player?"
"No. Time and nutrition," I said. "But I suppose some good music
couldn't hurt."
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JWR contributor Lori Borgman is the author of I Was a Better Mother Before I Had Kids. To comment, please click here. To visit her website click here.
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