Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Genetic Counselors and Genetic Testing Among Certified Professional Midwives in Vermont: A Modified Grounded Theory Study.

Increasingly, pregnant people in the United States are choosing to give at birth at home, and certified professional midwives (CPMs) often attend these births. Care by midwives, including home birth midwives, has the potential to decrease unnecessary medical interventions and their associated health care costs, as well as to improve maternal satisfaction with care. However, lack of integration into the health care system affects the ability of CPMs to access standard medications and testing for their clients, including prenatal screening. Genetics and genomics are now a routine part of prenatal screening, and genetic testing can contribute to identifying candidates for planned home birth. However, research on genetics and midwifery care has not, to date, included the subset of midwives who attend the majority of planned home births, CPMs. The purpose of this study was to examine CPMs' access to, and perspectives on, one aspect of prenatal care, genetic counselors and genetic counseling services. Using semi-structured interviews and a modified grounded theory approach to narrative analysis, we identified three key themes: (1) systems-level issues with accessing information about genetic counseling and genetic testing; (2) practice-level patterns in information delivery and self-awareness about knowledge limitations; and (3) client-level concerns about the value of genetic testing relative to difficulties with access and stress caused by the information. The results of this study can be used to develop decision aids that include information about genetic testing and genetic counseling access for pregnant people intending home births in the United States.

The case against cesarean delivery on maternal request in labor.

The ethical obligations of an obstetrician to a patient who requests a cesarean delivery without maternal or fetal indication differ depending on whether the request is made before or during labor. Informed consent is an essential dimension of respecting patient autonomy, and the process of informed consent should be extensive for a cesarean delivery in the absence of maternal or fetal indications during active labor. For this reason, physicians should rarely grant a request for cesarean delivery made during active labor. Although physicians may think that declining a request for cesarean delivery is a violation of patient autonomy, they should also be concerned about the violation of patient autonomy that results if they are unable to adequately complete the process of informed consent during labor.