Pilnick2008

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Pilnick2008
BibType ARTICLE
Key Pilnick2008
Author(s) Alison Pilnick
Title “It's something for you both to think about”: choice and decision making in nuchal translucency screening for Downs Syndrome
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Medical EMCA, Midwives, Choices, Genetic Testing
Publisher
Year 2008
Language English
City
Month
Journal Sociology of Health & Illness
Volume 30
Number 4
Pages 511–530
URL Link
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2007.01071.x
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Policies and practices around antenatal screening services have long been the subject of debate in a sociological context. However, existing research has largely overlooked the way in which the policies and practices that underpin antenatal screening services are enacted through talk between pregnant women and their health professionals. This paper focuses on one such policy, that of informed choice. It uses data from 14 tape‐recorded pre‐screening consultations with community midwives, forming part of a newly introduced nuchal translucency screening programme, to examine how the issue of choice is topicalised and discussed. It concludes that, whilst there is clear evidence that midwives are at pains to explicitly invoke the issue of decision making, there are other more subtle factors in the interactional presentation of screening tests that serve to undermine whether and how a recognition of choice is received by pregnant women.

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