Favorable attitudes toward testing for chromosomal abnormalities via analysis of fetal cells in maternal blood

The NICHD Fetal Cell Isolation Study (NIFTY) was a multicentered project to isolate fetal cells from maternal blood to detect fetal chromosomal abnormalities. The project included a psychosocial component, which is the basis of this article. We examined the attitudes of high-risk pregnant women toward the availability of a maternal blood test to identify fetal chromosomal abnormalities, how women would respond to hypothetical normal and abnormal maternal blood testing results, and the factors associated with a woman's preference to have an invasive procedure in response to a normal maternal blood test.

High-risk pregnant women (N = 854) planning to have prenatal diagnostic invasive testing (amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling) completed a survey.

The women highly favored maternal blood testing. Almost all women would seek invasive testing after an abnormal blood test. Only half of the women would seek invasive testing after a normal blood test; these women were older, more willing to terminate their pregnancy, and valued the increased accuracy of invasive testing more highly than women who would not have invasive testing after a normal maternal blood test.

Women having invasive diagnostic testing welcome a noninvasive procedure that uses fetal cells in maternal blood, and its availability would decrease invasive testing by approximately 50%. Research needs to examine the attitudes and anticipated responses of other risk groups as well as the effects of information about maternal blood test sensitivity and specificity on attitudes and responses.