The benefits of research

Prenatal studies, usually accompanied by genetic counseling, have made tremendous changes in the lives of thousands of pregnant women who undergo them every year. To some, they gave a sense of relief after long months filled with anxiety: "Is everything alright with the child?" Another, as was the case with Gloria, gave the child the "idea" to turn into a real child, to accelerate the development of maternal feelings. And few studies have put before a woeful choice: to interrupt pregnancy or to prepare for the fact that the child will be born with birth defects.
Today, doctors have a huge arsenal of tools to diagnose up to 250 diseases, most of which are not amenable to treatment. Nowadays, parents can find out in advance whether a child with a palatine cleft, mentally retarded or will be doomed to brain damage and death in middle age from Huntington's disease. The ability to foresee the fate of your child causes complex feelings and reliefs and anxieties in many parents.
"It all sounds so innocent," says Lonnie Hagstrom-Benner, who went through genetic counseling and amniocentesis due to her age, she gave birth to a son at 36. But you understand that the research will show whether you will become a mother or not. I tried not to think about the child too much until the results of the study become known. I did not want to stick to him with my heart if it could not bring anything but grief. "
Not one Lonnie experienced such feelings. Many women shared the feelings of Gloria. A number of observations showed that when a woman sees a live, moving baby on the screen, she quickly begins to perceive her pregnancy as something real, even before the second trimester, when she begins to feel the child's "fluttering" movements in her womb. Before that, the child, according to Gloria, is only thinking, is the cause of fatigue and nausea, but his physical presence is not felt. Thus, the woman begins to adjust to the relationship with her child.
The appearance of a child randomly moving hands and feet, sucking a thumb, somersaulting can be so touching that, as it turned out, a woman who has undergone ultrasound examination is more likely to switch to a healthy diet, to abandon bad habits such as smoking, drinking alcoholic beverages. If a woman undergoes examination due to a high degree of risk, then the sight of her unborn child moving and as if normal, brings her immense relief, even if she has yet to have another, more accurate study, such as amniocentesis. Some doctors who monitor pregnant women are sent to an ultrasound study of women experiencing heightened anxiety without any reason, just to reduce stress. Ultrasound sonography makes the child more realistic for fathers, who are deprived of other tangible evidence of the child's physical presence.