To know or not to know - parents' attitudes to and preferences for prenatal diagnosis

To highlight expectant parents' attitudes concerning prenatal diagnosis, what the parents wish to know and what they chose not to know about their unborn baby, also in what form and to what extent they wish for prenatal diagnosis. Background: Parents have to make decisions concerning prenatal d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of reproductive and infant psychology 2016-08, Vol.34 (4), p.356-369
Main Authors: Ekelin, Maria, Persson, Linda, Välimäki, Adina, Crang Svalenius, Elizabeth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antenatal
Attitudes
Caregivers
Decision making
Health Sciences
Hälsovetenskap
Infants
information
Invasive
Medical and Health Sciences
Medical diagnosis
Medical screening
Medicin och hälsovetenskap
Negative attitudes
Parent participation
parents
Parents & parenting
Positive thought
preferences
Pregnancy
Prenatal development
Prenatal diagnosis
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Summary:To highlight expectant parents' attitudes concerning prenatal diagnosis, what the parents wish to know and what they chose not to know about their unborn baby, also in what form and to what extent they wish for prenatal diagnosis. Background: Parents have to make decisions concerning prenatal diagnosis. Screening programmes change rapidly and there is a need for parental influence on this development. Methods: An interview study with 10 women in late pregnancy and six partners. Results: The main categories 'A time for preparation' and 'A lot but not everything' included the parents' positive attitudes towards prenatal diagnosis, especially if it could be carried out in early pregnancy and was of help for the baby, but also their negative attitudes toward information about possible future diseases that could not be prevented and towards invasive diagnosis. The parents had confidence in the caregivers' offers of screening programmes, but described their own attitudes as changing from before pregnancy, when newly pregnant and after their ultrasound examination. The parents described themselves as partly lacking knowledge about what the existing options for prenatal diagnosis involved. Conclusions: There is a great need for competent caregivers to inform the parents-to-be about the different methods for fetal diagnosis available to them and also what information the different methods can give. Partners need to be involved in the decision-making process.
ISSN:0264-6838
1469-672X
DOI:10.1080/02646838.2016.1200019