ABSTRACT
The doctor said something about low intelligence, cardiac defects and a lifetime of caring. He then patted Louise’s hand and left the room.
Preparing for the birth of a child is a unique and exciting time. On being asked to revisit the experience, parents often recall a variety of thoughts and emotions ranging from joy through to worries and anxieties, among which are those concerned with the health of the unborn child (Modh et al. , 2011). In the UK, the availability of pre-and post-natal screening and diagnosis offers parents the opportunity to establish the health of their child through the early detection of some physical and geneticbased conditions. While for some parents, such testing can offer the welcome reassurance that all is well, for others it can lead to a series of very diffi cult and ultimately life-changing decisions. This chapter explores assessment in pregnancy and childbirth in terms of the range of pre-natal and postnatal screening and diagnostic tests offered to parents across what has been termed the screening and testing pathway (NHS FASP Consent Standards Review Group and NHS Fetal Anomaly Screening Programme, 2011) (see Figure 7.1 ). The focus will be on the testing for Down syndrome or Down’s syndrome, though it is acknowledged that a range of different conditions can currently be detected. This will undoubtedly rise with the development of more sophisticated methods of testing.
