[blparent] 3D sonograms let blind expectant parents "see" theirbabies

[Jo Elizabeth Pinto]

That's awesome.  I'm not sure I would pay two or three hundred dollars for 
the model, but it would be nice to have the option.  When I had my first 
ultrasound at eleven weeks, I asked my boyfriend what the baby looked like, 
and he said sort of like a peanut-shaped blob of playdough.  So when I had 
the second sonogram at six months, I didn't even bother asking.

Jo Elizabeth

Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may 
kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at 
evening.--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
-----Original Message----- 
From: Hai Nguyen Ly
Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2013 9:12 AM
To: Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: [blparent] 3D sonograms let blind expectant parents "see" 
theirbabies



http://io9.com/3d-sonograms-let-blind-expectant-parents-see-their-ba-472999403

3D sonograms let blind expectant parents "see" their babies


Jorge Roberto Lopes dos Santos, an industrial designer with the Instituto 
Nacional de Tecnologia in Brazil, is giving doctors a new way to print 
sonograms for their patients — as life-size replicas.

The prenatal sonogram is a life-changing moment for many expectant parents, 
giving rise to the inherent value these images hold whether as printouts 
passed among family members or posts on social media.

It’s one of the joyous benchmarks of pregnancy, but one that has been 
elusive to the visually impaired. Innovations in 3D printing, however, could 
change that.

Dos Santos's company, Tecnologia Humana 3D, has been developing new ways to 
build three-dimensional computer models using data from sonograms and other 
imaging techniques after initially setting out to enhance prenatal 
diagnostic tools.

SExpand

The work took a new direction when dos Santos realized that printing these 
models would give visually impaired mothers-to-be a chance to meet their 
babies in utero.

“We work mainly to help physicians when there is some eventual possibility 
of malformation,” dos Santos said. “We also work for parents who want to 
have the models of their fetuses in 3D.”

Tecnologia Humana designs the models with sophisticated programs that 
produce highly detailed simulations of a fetus’ anatomy that doctors can 
examine virtually.

They can swoop through the lungs and explore the cavities of the heart in 
search of problems that may require intervention. Prior journeys have found 
Down syndrome and cleft lip, dos Santos said in a recent paper.

Making a tangible model of a fetus requires one other step — plugging that 
data into a 3D printer, a device that can create objects by laying down 
successive layers of material.

SExpand

Neva Fairchild, the resident expert on independent living at the American 
Foundation for the Blind, said the models would also benefit visually 
impaired family members looking to share in the experience of seeing their 
loved one’s unborn child for the first time.

A model would allow people with impaired vision to know the size of a fetus 
while giving them a new appreciation of those tiny toes and fingers. 
Fairchild, who is legally blind and can only discern shapes and shadows, 
speaks from experience.

“Fifteen months ago, my first grandchild was born and they had numerous 
sonograms and I missed out on all of that,” she said.

Fairchild said it’s important, however, for the producers of these models to 
keep cost in mind. Many recent inventions designed to aid the visually 
impaired are too expensive for the people they’re meant to help, and most 
insurance policies are reluctant to cover these kinds of expenses, she said.

But dos Santos said his reliance on common imaging techniques, such as the 
MRI and the CT scan, keeps costs relatively low — about $200 for a full 
model of a fetus at 12 weeks, and about $300 for the face and arms of a 
fetus at 24 weeks.

This article originally appeared at Tech Page One.


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