It’s your baby, and it’s, like, wow’: 3-D images from ultrasounds allow blind parents to feel their

New York Times

9th August 2020

It’s your baby, and it’s, like, wow’: 3-D images from ultrasounds allow blind parents to feel their infant’s face

Receiving a 3-D bas-relief model of her baby’s face in the mail was “really emotional” for Taylor Ellis, 26, a blind woman in Cockeysville, Md. “I was a little bit nervous about opening the box,” Ellis said. “I had never seen a 3-D [image], and now, it’s your baby, and it’s, like, wow.”

The idea evolved from a procedure developed several years ago at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for fetuses with spina bifida. Jena Miller, an obstetrician and surgeon with the Johns Hopkins Center for Fetal Therapy, realized that a 3-D print would allow her to get a clear image of the spines of babies who needed surgery in utero for spina bifida.

Called fetoscopic myelomeningocele repair, the surgery is conducted through two small ports in the mother’s uterus.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/its-your-baby-and-its-like-wow-3-d-images-from-ultrasounds-allow-blind-parents-to-feel-their-infants-face/2020/08/07/05241892-a4d7-11ea-8681-7d471bf20207_story.html