Decision making in pregnancy after 1970

Parents’ decision making in pregnancy in Britain has been transformed over the past 45 years by the development of prenatal screening methods and invasive and non-invasive diagnostic technologies. These screening and diagnostic tests, which provide information about fetal genetic abnormalities, neural tube defects, other structural anomalies, and fetal gender, have been analysed by sociologists, anthropologists and bioethicists. 

This pilot study will construct an application for the first large-scale historical analysis of the socio-cultural context of prenatal screening and diagnostic technologies and their impact upon women and their partners. It will do this by undertaking a rigorous literature review and scoping potential sources. We will have workshops with academics and stakeholders from medicine and the voluntary sector to inform the project’s approach and identify collaboration and engagement opportunities. We will then design and secure ethical approval for the methodology for the project which will enable women’s voices to be heard.