Buying reassurance: uptake of non-invasive prenatal testing among pregnant women of advanced maternal age in China

Abstract

Despite much ethical debate concerning non-invasive prenatal testing to abort or to detect genes, research on the experience of those who choose this new technology in China is limited, especially after the introduction of the Two-child Policy. In this article I analyse qualitative data from 25 interviews with pregnant women of advanced maternal age (pregnancy after 35) under the Two-child Policy, conducted in 2014 to 2016, as well as observational data from a 6-month, in-hospital participant observation in 2016. These data were collected with the aim to examine how non-invasive prenatal testing affects pregnant women’s risk perceptions and why this technology is widely accepted by pregnant women of advanced maternal age in China. I conclude that the women in my study accepted their ‘high-risk’ identity within prenatal care, and that non-invasive prenatal testing was integrated in this care. Women’s interactions with genetic counsellors, their husbands and close friends and community doctors produced anxieties, with women feeling responsible for the health of their foetuses. Consequently, the women in my study were willing to ‘buy’ this test for reassurance. The consumption of this new technology by pregnant women after the Two-child Policy lays a foundation for the market development of this technology in urban China.