Pregnant women of my parents' generation were not subjected to the level of testing that we have today. While this has undoubtedly saved many lives and ensured that expectant parents are better informed than ever before, knowledge has a price.
My previous blog entry details the unnecessary scare that we were given when the monitor started to record my wife's heart rate instead of my daughter's. Testing will always cause added anxiety as the results are awaited.
My wife has a music degree and we both hope that Cate will be able to enjoy the same level of pleasure from music that her mother does. These hopes were dealt a blow when Cate failed a hearing test when she was just a few days old. We were told that many babies fail this test due to fluid in the ear and that a specialist unit would be able to determine if her hearing defect was permanent. Cate's tiny body was hooked up to a machine that measured nerve impulses in the ear. The first few tests failed to work as Cate hands flailed at the wires attached to her head. During this time my wife and I looked on, as test after test failed to detect any nerve impulse, as our daughter gave out the small pathetic cries that are typical of a premature baby. Eventually Cate managed to exhaust herself into staying still long enough for the test to show that her hearing was normal, but I didn't truly believe these results until weeks later, when Cate clearly starting responding to sound.
The positive effect of testing far outweigh the negative, but if Cate had been born 30 years ago the outcome would have been the same, except her parents would have had less to worry about.
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