Chapter 3 focuses directly on the post-mortem examination, centring its analysis on the development of minimally invasive autopsy (MIA) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI is often perceived to be the ‘gold standard’ in healthcare. Its use in autopsy, however, signals the emergence of a novel application of the technology. Drawing on data from the study, this chapter explores parents’ and professionals’ feelings towards post-mortem MRI. For parents, MRI can be used to plan a less medicalised birth/death. It offers important information about why their baby died. The MRI image validates their baby’s existence, offering parents an important sense of closure. While post-mortem examination using MRI was not available to several parents in the study, most expressed an interest in this becoming more accessible in the future. This view was readily shared by professionals, especially when parents did not wish to consent to a full post-mortem. The chapter concludes by focusing on this novel technological application, exploring the extent to which MRI can enable us to reconceptualise ‘life’ beyond the old boundaries of ‘death’.
This book provides a sociological exploration of baby loss, analysing parents’ and professionals’ experiences of life, death and post-mortem. The book offers a concise introduction to the sociological literature around miscarriage, late fetal loss, stillbirth and sudden infant death. It also introduces the reader to existing ethnographic research on post-mortem practice. The book comprises seven substantive chapters, each exploring various aspects of the baby loss journey. It begins with an analysis of the trauma and shock parents initially experience when they lose a baby. It then moves on to introduce the topic of post-mortem practice, focusing first on the issue of parental decision-making. Each subsequent chapter focuses on different sociologically pertinent issues relating to post-mortem practice, including the role of technology, emotions, hidden care practices and memory-making. The final substantive chapter situates the experience of baby loss and post-mortem examination within the broader context of debates on biological and social relationships. As will be shown throughout the book, while baby loss occurs to individual mothers and fathers, both parental and professional experience of this loss are profoundly shaped and mediated by the social. The conclusion reflects, therefore, on the classic sociological relationship between the individual and society. It also reflects on the theory and method used throughout the research, highlighting both the value and challenge of conducting sociological research on sensitive topics.