[A qualitative study of pregnant women's choice of nuchal translucency measurement]

In 2004, The Danish National Board of Health introduced new guidelines for prenatal screening and diagnosis. Subsequently, all pregnant women in Denmark have been offered a maternal serum screening and a nuchal translucency measurement (NTM). The results are combined to a single risk estimate of carrying a Down syndrome child. All pregnant women are also offered a late second trimester scan for fetal abnormalities. Pregnant woman should be fully informed to enable them to make an informed choice. We explored the role of information in the pregnant women's understanding and decision-making for the NTM.

26 consenting pregnant women were interviewed after their first visit to their GP and again after the late ultrasound scan. Our results are mainly based on the first interviews and the 24 participants who chose to have a NTM.

The pregnant women consider a fetal scan as an attractive routine procedure during pregnancy. Apart from the information about prenatal examinations given by the GP, the pregnant women do not subsequently seek further information. The most important motives for wanting to have the NTM are 1) assurance, 2) choice, 3) expectations of the scan being a happy event, and 4) the idea that the examinations are approved by the Danish health care system.

The decision to have a NTM is motivated by expectations that exceed the specific medical aim of the examination and the content of the information provided. The pregnant women believe in a link between knowledge and anxiety, and therefore do not wish to "know too much". Our results show that the pregnant woman's conception of the information provided and her motives for having a NTM are based on strategies and rationales that hinder an informed choice.