Participation in maternal serum screening following screen positive results in a previous pregnancy

Abstract

Objective To determine whether women who have had a positive serum screening result in one pregnancy have a lower rate of participation in screening in their next pregnancy. Setting The Women and Infants Hospital triple marker screening programme. Methods Pregnancy and screening information was collected from laboratory and hospital databases to compare subsequent screening participation in women who were screen negative and screen positive for risk of Down's syndrome (DS) or neural tube defect (NTD) pregnancy. Results In an age matched comparison, 108 women who had a previous screen positive result were significantly less likely than 108 women who were screen negative to participate in maternal serum screening in their next pregnancy. When examined according to type of screen positive result, the effect was significant for both those who were screen positive for DS and those who were screen positive for NTD. The degree of risk in screen positive women did not significantly affect their uptake of screening in the next pregnancy. Conclusions Anxiety related to a screen positive result probably causes decreased participation in maternal serum screening in the next pregnancy. Reducing the screen positive rate in prenatal serum screening would alleviate maternal anxiety and would probably lead to more stable participation.