Parental expectations, experiences and reactions, sense of coherence and grade of anxiety related to routine ultrasound examination with normal findings during pregnancy

Abstract

Women and men are affected in their psychological well-being in relation to a routine ultrasound examination, but their sense of coherence remains stable.

Prenatal ultrasound screening: False positive soft markers may alter maternal representations and mother-infant interaction

“…Paediatricians and general practitioners should consider false positive ultrasound screening to be a significant prenatal event. Given that anxiety and depression auto questionnaires have been validated for use during pregnancy [15,43], we recommend systematically screening for anxiety and depression at the visit immediately following SM detection to identify at-risk women and offer psychological treatment. Indeed, the ideal time to begin mental health care could be during the obstetric follow-up, when the psychic dynamics of the woman are accessible, or immediately in postpartum, while the mother is still in the hospital and the dyadic pattern is establishing [18,19].…”

Pregnancy-related anxiety: Evidence of distinct clinical significance from a prospective longitudinal study

“…Second, we examine if pregnancy-related anxiety can be distinguished from conventional symptoms measures by its course in pregnancy. At least some features of pregnancy-related anxiety may diminish significantly across pregnancy (Lobel et al, 2008), perhaps reflecting greater confidence in the health of the baby in response to ultrasound findings or because of a decreased risk of miscarriage with longer gestation (Ekelin et al, 2009; Tsartsara and Johnson, 2006). Whether or not this trend is particular to pregnancy-related anxiety is not clear, as some but not other reports of conventional symptoms of anxiety report changes within pregnancy, e.g., (Heron et al, 2004; van Bussel et al, 2009).…”

The Ghanaian woman’s experience and perception of ultrasound use in antenatal care

“…Some women see ultrasonography as a way of getting their husbands involved in childbearing, to enhance not only the father-child bond, but also the marital relationship. 7 There is evidence that routine antenatal ultrasound scans has effects on the psychological well-being of both women and men 27 , and may also have significant effects on parental attitudes to each other and to the fetus 28 . It is possible that the very low attendance by fathers in this study may be due to lack of knowledge that fathers could attend the ultrasound procedure.…”