An unwanted pregnancy and language proficiency level are associated with first antenatal visit after the first trimester: Results from a prospective cohort study.

Objective: To study the association between the reasons for a 'late' first antenatal visit and the influence of several maternal determinants and practical limitations on the timing of the first antenatal visit.

Design: A prospective cohort study.

Setting: Southwest region of The Netherlands, mainly characterised by large urban and suburban areas.

Ethnicity and Language Proficiency Differences in the Provision of and Intention to Use Prenatal Screening for Down's Syndrome and Congenital Anomalies. A Prospective, Non-selected, Register-Based Study in the Netherlands.

Objective We aimed to conduct an analysis of the associations between the information provision procedure of prenatal screening for Down's syndrome and congenital anomalies and the intention to participate in prenatal screening (PS) of ethnicity groups and Dutch language proficiency groups. Design Using a prospective web-based registration form, we asked counselors (midwives, general practitioners, nurses and gynecologists) to report whether and how they offered information about PS to pregnant women. Duration The study was conducted from 2008 to 2010.

Comparison of risk calculation approaches in a screening programme for Down syndrome.

In the Netherlands, both the LifeCycle Elipse (LC) and the Astraia software package are used to calculate the risk of having a child with Down syndrome. Therefore, pregnant women can be presented with dissimilar risks. In this study the conformity between these risks before and after harmonization of the screening program and its influence on the performance indicators of the first trimester screening were evaluated.

Down syndrome screening: imagining the screening test of the future.

Prenatal screening for Down syndrome (DS) is performed by risk calculation based on biochemical and biometric parameters. This way, approximately 75-85% of all DS cases can be detected. A way to improve detection rates is to search for new screening markers.