It Becomes More Real: Genetic Counselors as Expert/Users of Prenatal Technologies

• In Event: 470 - Regular Session. Sociology of Reproduction: Reproductive Technologies

Abstract

Much of the research on the biomedicalization of pregnancy has focused on how a process that historically has been shaped by embodied and other forms of experiential knowledge, has been supplanted by expert/ biomedical knowledge. When women make use of contemporary biomedical offerings, such as prenatal screening and testing, they are often viewed as trusting medical authority/knowledge. As a result, when women turn down the opportunity to make use of biomedical offerings and knowledge during their pregnancies they are often viewed as: (1) less educated and familiar with medical protocols; (2) making use of alternative forms of knowledge; and/or (3) resisting/rejecting (bio)medicalization processes. Given these assumptions we would expect that genetic counselors, a group of educated medical professionals immersed in the field of genetics, would generally support prenatal testing for themselves. Drawing on 27 semi-structured interviews with masters-level genetic counselors I interrogate these assumptions. Although many counselors do embrace biomedical protocols regarding risk, and have or will pursue prenatal testing, many counselors also provided complex narratives in which their choices about and views on prenatal testing are shaped in unexpected ways, affecting both their own decision-making. The different patterns and interactions that emerge among this specialized group of medical professionals, what I refer to as an expert/user, serve as an illuminating case that demonstrates the complicated ways in which biomedical, experiential, embodied and other forms of knowledge interact with each other to shape women’s decision-making about their prenatal care and their experience of pregnancy.

Author

• Susan Markens, Lehman College, City University of New York