ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to report on a study of midwives in Greece, The Netherlands, England and Finland. The aim of the Midwives' study was to solicit the views of midwives in order to find out their professional opinions on prenatal screening and the development of prenatal genetic technologies. The chapter investigates Midwives' personal and professional attitudes towards decision-making processes, autonomy, ethical, social and psychosocial aspects of prenatal screening and diagnosis. The Midwives' study was an empirically based one with two stages of data collection. The first stage was an initial data gathering exercise, aimed at providing background information for each country. The second stage was a survey stage, targeting midwives in each country through questionnaires. The availability of increasing numbers of technological developments and genetic tests raises a number of practical, social and ethical issues in the field of prenatal care for all health professionals, especially midwives. Pregnancies are increasingly controlled by these technologies.
