[Influence of echography on the psychological course of pregnancy]

In an attempt to define the psychological impact of obstetrical ultrasonography, we have had semi-directive talks with 86 pregnant women coming from 3 different institutions. We asked them about the image that they had of that examination: its function and the type of information it could provide. The experience of the ultrasonographic examination was then analysed: what reactions did the ultrasonographic image provoke? In the case of the father as well as the mother how do the women perceive what the physician has to say to them? Ought the ultrasonographist to tell them of possible malformations of the child and its sex? The confrontation between the child imagined by every expectant mother and the image of the actual foetus which is presented to her does not always pass without problems and appears to be clearly linked to the kind of relationship which has been established between the physician and his patient.