家用验孕棒是谁发明的？
Who Made That Home Pregnancy Test?

The first home pregnancy test, which appeared in drugstores in 1977, looked like a kid’s chemistry set: it contained a vial of purified water, an angled mirror, a test tube and red blood cells taken from a sheep. “I had to refrigerate the urine,” recalled one woman interviewed as part of an online public history project. “The test could not be disturbed. You had to put it where it would not feel any vibration.” Cumbersome as they were, those early kits — e.p.t. was the first to hit the market — were far more convenient than the alternative.

1977年首次出现在药店里的怀孕自测套装，看起来像是小孩子玩化学实验用的：一小瓶纯净水，一个探镜，一根试管和从绵羊身上提取的红细胞。“尿液必须冷藏起来，”一位接受在线公共历史项目采访的女士这样回忆道，“测试不能受到干扰，而且必须在感觉不到任何震动的地方进行。”尽管操作起来很烦琐，这些早期的套装——e.p.t.（Early Pregnancy Test, 早孕测试）是第一批投放市场的产品——比当时的其他同类产品方便多了。

A trip to the doctor’s office could be especially daunting for single women, who might receive a stern lecture along with the results. “It was revolutionary for women back then, when you consider the options that were available,” says the historian Sarah A. Leavitt.

单身女性很怕去看医生，因为在拿到测试结果的同时，可能还要挨训。“那种自测套装，真是革命性的，因为当时可供女性选择的测试方式并不多，”历史学家莎拉·A·莱维特(Sarah A. Leavitt)说。

Home pregnancy tests emerged from a surprising confluence of scientific and social changes. In 1972, scientists at the National Institutes of Health announced a new method for the rapid detection of pregnancy; the following year, Roe v. Wade made abortion legal — and home testing all the more attractive. “The e.p.t. In-Home Early Pregnancy Test is a private little revolution any woman can easily buy at her drugstore,” read a 1978 print ad that celebrated the product as a tool of feminist liberation.

家用验孕套装的出现，源于科学进步和社会变革的一个意外的汇合。1972年，美国国立卫生研究院(National Institutes of Health)的科学家们宣布了一种快速验孕的新方法。第二年，罗伊诉韦德案(Roe v. Wade)使堕胎合法化。这样一来，家庭自测变得很吸引人。“任何妇女都能很容易地在药店买到e.p.t.家用早孕测试套装，这是一场保护个人隐私的小小的革命，”1978年报纸上的一则广告这样说，将该产品标榜为女性解放的工具。

But many women recoiled from the prospect of collecting their own urine and analyzing it in a bathroom lab. So the home pregnancy test became a blockbuster product only when it entered the Wand Era — with ingeniously designed sticks that collected urine at one end and gave results at the other. In 1988, Unilever introduced the first “one step” test, Clearblue Easy, so named for the blue stripe that slowly materialized to indicate pregnancy.

但是很多女人一想到要在卫生间里收集、分析自己的尿液，就有点望而却步。所以，怀孕自测产品真正广受欢迎，是在验孕棒出现以后。验孕棒真是个天才的设计，它一端收集尿液，另一端显示结果。1988年，联合利华公司推出了第一款“一步到位式的”测试棒，取名Clearblue Easy。名字来源于测试棒上慢慢显现的、表示怀孕的蓝色条纹。

According to the Food and Drug Administration, one-third of all American women have used a home pregnancy test. And Leavitt says it was the wand that transformed how we define pregnancy. “Eventually, of course, you’ll know you’re pregnant,” she says. But the home test has “shifted that knowledge earlier” so that pregnancy starts with a moment in the bathroom, watching a little plastic window and waiting for a sign.

根据美国食品和药物管理局的统计，三分之一的美国女性做过怀孕自测。莱维特说，验孕棒改变了我们确定怀孕的方式。“当然，最终你会知道自己怀孕了，”她说。但是，验孕棒能让你“提前知道”，这样一来，怀孕是从你在卫生间里盯着小小的塑料窗口、等待测试棒变色的那一刻开始的。

EARLY DECISION

早期决定

Marcel Wanders, once called ‘‘the Lady Gaga of the design world,’’ is the art director at Moooi. In 1990 he designed a home pregnancy test for Organon Teknika.

马塞尔·万德斯(Marcel Wanders)曾被称作“设计界的Lady Gaga”，现在是Moooi设计公司的艺术总监。1990年他为奥根泰尼克公司(Organon Teknika)设计了一款家用验孕棒。

What was the biggest challenge you faced in reimagining the pregnancy test? Organon had a test that was larger than the competitor’s. Instead of accepting that as a problem, I decided to make it an opportunity. We designed a test you could write on: your name, the baby’s name, the date. You could put stickers on it. It was like a desk.

在重新设计验孕棒的时候，你面临的最大的挑战是什么？奥根公司有一款验孕棒，比竞争对手的大。我把这看成一个机会，而不是个问题。我们由此设计了一种验孕棒，你能在上面写上你的名字、孩子的名字和日期。你可以在上面贴上标签，就像个小书桌。

So the woman who used it could keep it as a memento? Yes. I think a lot of people would use it as a souvenir.

这样的话，可以留下来做个纪念？是的，我想很多人会把它当作纪念品。

How does a designer convey the message ‘‘You’re pregnant’’ with one simple icon? You don’t want to put too much meaning into it. Because the pregnancy test has a very different significance to different people. For some people, it’s good news. For others, it’s bad news. You can’t put too much of your own sensibility into the object.

设计师怎样用一个简单的图标来传递“你怀孕了”的消息？你不能给它赋予太多的意义。因为怀孕测试对不同的人来说意义很不同。对有些人来说，怀孕是个好消息。对另外一些人来说，它是坏消息。你不能在验孕棒上灌注太多你自己的感情。

本文最初发表于2012年7月29日。

翻译：王艳