Emotional pressures on pregnant women undergoing invasive or noninvasive prenatal diagnostics

Objective: High-resolution ultrasonography of the fetus now allows assessme nt of empirical risk factors for an abnormal karyotype such as nuchal trans lucency. We studied the emotional pressures on pregnant women before and af ter invasive or noninvasive prenatal diagnostic studies. Methods: We studied 324 women referred to a prenatal unit between 12 and 19 weeks' gestation. The prenatal procedure (ultrasonography 264, amniocentes is 34, chorionic villous sampling 26) were studied as independent variables . The current emotional pressure assessed with the Muller and Basler short questionnaire was the dependent variable. Results: All women were under high emotional pressure before a prenatal exa mination, regardless of whether or not the procedure was invasive. Emotiona l pressure was significantly lower after a noninvasive than after an invasi ve study. Conclusion: Prenatal diagnostics and resulting decisions can lead to profou nd conflicts in expectant parents, regardless of the invasiveness of the pr ocedure. Normal findings immediately relieve emotional pressure.