3D-printed ultrasound lets blind woman 'see' her unborn baby
Expectant mother who lost her vision at 17 gets a sense of what her unborn son looks like
A video showing a blind woman getting to "see" her unborn child by holding a 3D printed ultrasound has drawn more than a million views in a couple of days.
News that figures of human fetuses could be 3D printed as keepsakes for expectant parents first broke in 2012 when a Japanese company started offering the service.
Businesses in the U.S., South Korea and Estonia have followed suit, prompting many around the web to ask why people were actually spending up to about $1,300 US for "weird" fetus dolls.
That conversation shifted in a big way, however, as the internet learned about Tatiana Guerra, 30, who has been blind since the age of 17.
In a video released by Huggies Brasil last week, Guerra is seen at a doctor's office being examined 20 weeks into her pregnancy.
As an ultrasound is being performed, the doctor informs her of the baby's healthy heart rate.
"What does his face look like, doctor?" asks Guerra in Portuguese, unable to view the ultrasound images for herself.
"His nose looks like yours … his two little eyes are closed … how do you imagine him?" he responds.
"Oh, I imagine him," the expectant mom says. "His nose like a little potato … a small mouth … a chubby little hand."
The video then cuts to a mobile 3D printing station, which shows the ultrasound imagery being used to create a physical model of the unborn baby.
When the printed fetus is brought into the room with Guerra, the doctor informs her that it is an image of her son, whom she plans on naming Murilo.
You can see her touching reaction for yourself in the video below.
The use of 3D printers to repair and aid the human body has been well-documented in recent years, but Guerra's story is the first to make public how this type of technology can help a blind mother "see" her unborn child's ultrasound — and despite the fact that it's part of an ad campaign, the internet is loving it.
The YouTube video's view count has jumped from approximately 50,000 to more than 1.6 million in just two days.