Pregnancy experience and prenatal screening

To find out more about the subjective state of mind of pregnant women, their attitude and their desire for information and to be better able to tailor the new media, materials and in-service training opportunities to them, the BZgA commissioned a survey of pregnant women. The respondent provided information about various aspects of their pregnancy experience, their experiences with pre-natal screening and their attitudes and expectations.

The questionnaire section entitled “pregnancy experience” was for example interested in the age which the women considered to be the “best” age to become pregnant. What is the ideal number of children? How well are the pregnant women feeling and what complaints do they currently have? What emotions are connected to the pregnancy? The women were also asked how they got their information and which topics were of particular interest to them.

Besides “pregnancy experience” “prenatal screening” was another subject the investigation focused on. The technological advances of the diagnostic procedures have allowed a growing percentage of pregnant women to take advantage of prenatal screening. Prenatal screening appears to have become a routine component of medical prenatal care. The pregnant women hoped these tests would reassure them about the health of their unborn child. The fact that prenatal screening could also lead to profound decision-making conflicts was often forgotten.

Thus, in the context of the representative survey, we examined the reasons why women chose to or chose not to take advantage of prenatal screening and how they evaluated the examinations in retrospect.

A third set of questions related to the quality of the advice and treatment the pregnant women were getting from their physicians. They were asked to rate their satisfaction or rather to rate the strengths and weaknesses of the medical advice they received.