Pregnancy and technology: Thai women's perceptions and experience of prenatal testing

In this paper we discuss the perceptions and experience of prenatal testing among 30 Thai women in Australia. Ethnographic interviews and participant observation were used to elicit information in the study. The results show that most Thai women have positive attitudes toward prenatal testing, particularly that of ultrasound scan. Women see prenatal testing as a means for reassurance about the health and well-being of their foetus, to detect the sex of their foetus, and to create excitement about life in their uterus. However, there are also women who have negative attitudes toward or are ambivalent about prenatal testing. Despite some doubts about prenatal testing, women fell that it offers some answers about the well-being of their foetus and hence in the end they accept it as part of their pregnancy. We also discuss explanations for the acceptance of prenatal testing among Thai women.