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SummaryThere is currently both an absolute and relative reduction in births to older women. In a single hospital population the number of older women. In a single hospital population the number of older women having amniocentesis for pre-natal diagnosis is only a small, though increasing, proportion of those at risk. The main factors in failure of offering amniocentesis are late booking and communication difficulty.

International audience ; The issue of abortion has been the topic of heated and frequent debate in post-Communist Poland. Parliamentary debate in 1998--9 centred around a legislative attempt to restrict prenatal testing, specifically amniocentesis, in order to further reduce the numbers of abortions carried out, as it was argued to inevitably result in the termination of pregnancy. Medical professionals are rarely visible as subjects of and authorities on the abortion debate in the Polish context. However, in this debate around prenatal testing, the medical community appear as key commentators and meaning-makers. This article asks the following questions: What role do the medical profession and biomedical knowledge play in the debate around prenatal testing, when abortion is highly politicized? Second, what social meanings and consequences are attributed to prenatal testing? How do these construct the relationship between foetus, pregnant woman and doctor, and what agency and 'rights' are attributed to women in the process of prenatal testing?

A reunion of 38-year-old female monozygotic twins took place in Daegu, South Korea, on January 14, 2014. Scientific and personal perspectives on this extraordinary event are provided. A review of timely twin research follows, covering the effects of multiple births on IQ and body size, lifestyle and physical fitness associations, a rare case of a dizygotic twin with blood chimerism and definitional issues surrounding amniocentesis-related loss in multiple birth pregnancies. Interesting and informative mention of twins in the media includes twin doctors, a twin freedom fighter, the availability of college scholarships for twins, a new book about the Piccard family (two of whose members were twins), and co-twins born before and after the new year. A follow-up to a previous mention of identical twin biatheletes is also provided.

Abstract: Toxoplasma Gondii is a protozoan parasite which causes multisystem affections and unusual clinical outcomes. Although primo- infection takes place frequently during childhood, there is a possibility for it to be found during pregnancy, when it could lead to congenital toxoplasmosis, with serious ocular and cerebral lesions (that can be identified during ultrasound). The positive diagnostic for the mother is made after a serologic test and for the fetus the parasite can be found in the amniotic fluid during amniocentesis. A prompt treatment can avoid the presence of cerebral lesions (hydrocephalus, ventriculomegaly, intracerebral calcifications). Keywords: protozoan, pregnancy, serology, amniocentesis, hydrocephalus, ventriculomegaly, intracerebral calcifications.

<i>Objectives:</i> This study was undertaken to assess women's self-reported awareness of Down syndrome before they became pregnant and after they were supposedly informed about screening. We investigated their understanding of the purpose of screening and what a high statistical risk for Down syndrome means, and if there was a high statistical risk whether they would undergo amniocentesis. <i>Methods:</i> Pregnant women (n = 274) ranging from 17 to 43 years of age, with different educational backgrounds, were surveyed by means of a questionnaire which was given to them immediately before blood samples were taken. <i>Results:</i> Women without a college education were significantly less likely than those with a college education to be aware of Down syndrome prior to pregnancy. Many of them reported being unaware of it even after they had been counseled and tested. Women with a lower level of education were also significantly less likely to have a clear understanding of purpose of screening. Fewer than 0.7% of women who were tested said they were not prepared to undergo amniocentesis, and 47.1% said they would consider amniocentesis only after receiving the screening test result. <i>Conclusion:</i> Procedures for educating women prior to maternal screening must be improved.

<i>Objective:</i> To examine the use of prenatal diagnosis and maternal serum maker tests (MSMTs) from January 1 to December 31, 1997, in Japan. <i> Methods:</i> Questionnaires were sent to medical facilities, which represent about 80% of the facilities providing prenatal diagnosis. <i>Results:</i> Prenatal diagnosis was performed in 5,748 women, of whom 5,538 (5,516 amniocenteses and 22 chorionic villus sampling; 96.3%) were screened for chromosomal abnormalities. 89.1% (221/248) of those diagnosed to have fetal abnormalities terminated the pregnancy. Written informed consent signed by both the obstetrician and the pregnant woman undergoing prenatal diagnosis was the policy in 76.5% facilities. A total of 14,682 MSMTs were performed: 8,919 were in pregnant women under 34 years of age and 5,763 were in women aged 35 years or older. Follow-up data were obtained in 10,209; 6,918 women under 34 years were tested; of those 448 had a positive result; 349 underwent amniocentesis and trisomy 21 was diagnosed in 9. 3,291 women aged 35 years or older were tested; of those 634 had a positive result; 607 underwent amniocentesis and trisomy 21 was found in 16 cases. Written informed consent before MSMTs was obtained in 34.5% of the facilities. <i>Conclusion: </i>The data showed that only 4% of pregnant women above age 35 years underwent amniocentesis in Japan, and a small proportion of pregnant women were being offered MSMTs. Prenatal testing should be carried out only on a voluntary basis. For this purpose, women must be adequately informed.

1. ARTs of discourse : donors, dads, mothers, and others -- 2. Cyborg conceptions : how technologies mark bodies -- 3. Liberal discourses : popular and medical -- 4. Fundamentalist discourses : feminist and secular -- 5. Conception in the lab : in vitro fertilization -- 6. Surrogate mothers : victims or monsters? -- 7. Prenatal technologies : ultrasound and amniocentesis -- 8. (M)other discourses.

AMNIOCENTESIS, A PROCEDURE WHICH DETECTS MONGOLISM AND OTHER SERIOUS ABNORMALITIES IN A FETUS IN UTERO, COULD PREVENT THE BIRTH, BY THERAPEUTIC ABORTION, OF THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN. THE QUESTION IS WHO SHOULD MAKE THE DECISION. COST IS ONE CONSIDERATION, AS IT WOULD COST ABOUT $60 MILLION ANNUALLY TO TEST ALL PREGNANT WOMEN OVER 35 AT $150 PER WOMAN.

<i>Objective:</i> In France, health care providers now have to fulfill two requirements before serum marker screening for Down syndrome can be carried out: provide a written statement confirming that they informed the pregnant woman about the test and obtain the woman's written consent. A survey was designed to assess: (1) women's opinion on the explanations they received when the screening test was offered and when test results were given, and (2) the decisions women planned to make in light of the test results (i.e. to carry out amniocentesis or not). <i>Methods:</i> The survey was intended for all French pregnant women who underwent the serum marker screening test during the first week of October 1998. The questionnaire was sent to women via clinical laboratories (3,825 questionnaires were sent to the 54 laboratories authorized for Down syndrome screening in France). Besides χ² tests and tests of comparisons of paired proportions, we conducted a hierarchical clustering analysis and qualitatively analyzed the free comments provided by women. <i>Results:</i> The response rate was 39% (n = 1,473). Explanations given by the provider at the time the test was offered were not clear and ample enough for 38.8% of women. Furthermore, 45.9% of women stated the same opinion about the explanations provided with the test results. Based on the test results, amniocentesis was recommended to 125 high-risk women; 20.8% of them were going to decline the offer or had not yet decided. Among low-risk women, 13% requested amniocentesis or had not yet decided. The opinion of these high- or low-risk women on the clarity and ampleness of the explanations provided with the test results was similar to that of high-risk women who wished to carry out amniocentesis. The hierarchical clustering analysis led us to identify clusters of women who mainly differed according to their opinion (anxious or reassured) on the explanations provided, regardless of their risk (high or low). <i>Conclusion:</i> Women's decision regarding screening for Down syndrome requires them to promptly integrate complex information on what the test is and entails. The question is then raised as to the type of information that is actually disclosed or that could be disclosed, based on how women value its contribution to decision-making.

Revisioning Women, Health and Healing: Feminist, Cultural and Technoscience Perspectives. Adele E. Clarke and Virginia L. Olesen. eds, New York: Routledge, 1999. 374 pp.Technologies of Procreation: Kinship in the Age of Assisted Conception. Jeanette Edwards. Sarah Franklin. Eric Hirsch, Frances Price, and Marilyn Strathern. New York: Routledge, 1999. 236 pp.Testing the Women, Testing the Fetus: The Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America. Rayna Rapp. New York: Routledge, 1999. 361 pp.

This article explores the reasons women of diverse class, racial ethnic, national, and religious backgrounds give for their decisions not to accept an amniocentesis or, having accepted one, not to pursue an abortion after diagnosis of serious fetal disability. The narratives of refusers reveal conflicts and tensions between the universalizing rationality of biomedical interventions into pregnancy and the wider heterogeneous social frame work to which women respond in their decision-making processes.