STORY
NHS England has said public information about screening tests in pregnancy is helping women make informed choices, after an evaluation found that 81% of women felt well-informed throughout the non-invasive prenatal testing process.
The evaluation looked at how women understand NHS public-facing information about screening for Down’s syndrome, Edwards’ syndrome and Patau’s syndrome. Non-invasive prenatal testing, known as NIPT, was added to the NHS fetal anomaly screening programme in 2021 after a recommendation from the UK National Screening Committee.
Eligible pregnant women in England are offered screening tests to assess the chance of their baby having one of the three conditions. Those who receive a higher chance result from the combined or quadruple test can then be offered NIPT as a secondary screening test. NHS England said the introduction of NIPT gives women access to more accurate information about their pregnancy in a safer way than immediately proceeding to diagnostic tests such as chorionic villus sampling or amniocentesis, which carry a small risk of miscarriage.
The evaluation, carried out with Thinks Insight & Strategy, used qualitative work and a quantitative survey with women from a range of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds across England. Participants included women who were more than 20 weeks pregnant, or who had been pregnant within the previous 12 months.
NHS England said women valued information that was balanced, detailed without being overwhelming and clear that screening was a choice. An animated resource was praised for being engaging, colourful and free of jargon, helping women understand complex medical information during pregnancy.
The review also found that midwives remain the most trusted source of screening information. However, it warned that women often receive information verbally at the same time as large amounts of other pregnancy advice, meaning some struggle to retain details and are left with unanswered questions.