Wanted - midwives' opinions please!!!!

[Diege]

Hi! I'm a regular mumsnetter, with 3 dds, and also work as a Sociologist. I've just finished a research project which looks at how pregnant women cope with receiving 'high risks' results when screened for chromosome/neural tube abnormalities (eg. triple test/nuchal fold), and am now changing my focus to look at how health care professionals (esp. midwives)feel about screening tests eg. triple test, nuchal fold), and their role in communicating the 'risk' to women.
I'm just 'piloting' at the moment (ie, getting a sense of how modwives feel) in preparation for a large scale study of midwives in the summertime.
I'd really appreciate any feedback at all from mumsnet midwives, about how they see the tests, their role in getting the 'risk' across to women, if they feel the tests help or alternatively have more negative effects on all concerned.
I'm happy for you to post here, or alternatively, e-mail at [email protected]
This is a serious study, that has passed through the ethics committee, with the aim of improving the ways in which pregnant women are informed about screening, from start to finish.
Thanks for reading through, even if you're unable to help .

Sorry I'm not a midwife but slightly going off at a tangent, I do have a comment about how midwives communicate risk.

When I asked a mw about my chances of being able to use the birthing pool at the birthing unit, she said

"Well we have about 180 births a year here and one birthing pool, so your chances are one in 180. At the big hospital they have about 6,000 births a year and one birthing pool so your chances there are one in 6000."

I was polite enough to get off the phone before PMSL.

The question is not just how do they communicate risk, but do they understand the mathematics of probability at all?

And are we a nation of maths phobics or what?

Come on all you highly numerate midwives - take a risk and tell us what you think about Probability!