Trajectories, biographies and the evolving medical technology scene: labor and delivery and the intensive care nursery

Summary This paper is about the complexities of understanding the medical technology scene. A variety of attacks and defences on and of this scene — largely simplistic and encapsulated in catchwords and phrases like ‘dehumanization,’‘rising hospital costs, ‘quality of life’‐ have gained currency. There is a need to recognize the complexities stemming from medical technology, but also to find explanatory patterns. This paper uses the labor and delivery ward and the intensive care nursery (ICN) in the service of illuminating these complexities and patterns.